The Resident Shriners Football Thread

Cunting cuntrags.

arsenal > all

Indeed it is.

Those cockney shits deserve it. And I still maintain they are the best team in the league by the terms of actually playing ‘sexy’ football. But, yes. I fucking hate them too.

/waits for Garamonds rant about MLB.

The results show it

As a supporter of what football really is though, a North West tradition, I’d like to see any of the above mentioned teams win the league ahead of Chelsea, or any other London club for that matter.

See my edit notes if you disagree.

I don’t think he should be sacked, I think despite his whinging, he’s a good manager and you lads have enough decent players to climb the table. Reid and Nelson are big losses, and of course Bellamy is a very difficult player to replace, only now with Martins have we replaced him.

Liverpool are a fringe team. They’ve done nothing notable recently other than win the CL, and look where they finished domestically. I’m not saying Blackburn are better (push come to shove you’ve always had a better side, averagely, if that’s a word, over the seasons) It’s not right to say that Liverpool are the best team in the league. Nor Everton, and nor Blackburn.

I honestly thought Liverpool would be right up there, its quite dissappointing for the sake of a good title fight(3 way scrap > 2 horse race). They have serious quality all over the park, Bellamy and Kuyt are as good a pair as you’ll find, Gerrard, Alonso and even Sissoko are world-class players, defence needs to be sorted out though, Agger is decent and Carragher is Carragher, but im not sure about it sometimes.

Liverpool will have a good season with that new multi-billionaire who’s investing in the club. I just hope Rafa doesn’t go and buy players from around the globe and stays a little closer to our shores.

Does it matter if the players brought in help you challenge for the title?

EDIT@BRYAN – Your post wasn’t there at the time of going to press. I shall reply soon enough once another post has hit, so as not to x2post.

only result that matters

Intertoto Cup gives clubs from europe to access the UEFA cup, it’s like a tournament where the prize is access to the UEFA cup, i think only two clubs can qualify

That bastard’s rubbing off on me 🙁

From 2-0 down against Portsmouth, Arsenal levelled in the space of five minutes and ran Portsmouth ragged for basically the whole of the second half. David James made some good stops and Arsenal players were a little greedy about squaring it or we would have won that game. Yesterday the same thing happened in the last ten minutes. I know that when a team goes two goals down with five or ten minutes to go they lose commitment and all that, so Blackburn’s defending was ropey for the fifth and sixth, but still, Arsenal’s fifth was a terrific example of what they should be doing but haven’t been for two seasons. Adebayor threaded a ball through to Fabregas who could have shot but instead squared it to van Persie who had an open net. It’s the kind of thing that Arsenal would do instinctively three seasons ago but has been lost since the squad has been changed so drastically, but I think it bodes well for the future that the new team is getting it together. Arsenal are good lads anyway.

I know this, lol. I appreciate your explanation none the less, it’s quite good. I obviously failed at making a joke about Newcastle and having as little star quality to be associated with the Belgium league. Never mind.

intertwobob cup’s more worthless then unibond. or CIS cup. well its not but most clubs turn down the opportunity to play in it anyway cos it starts 3 weeks after the seasons ended or something stupid like that, and has welsh teams in it

tidus love your avatar del misses the prodigal. endless nights = awesome

I would like to be made aware of an Arsenal fan who denies the Emirates is a profit making enterprise.

and if i can avoid being patronising i would like to congratulate a gooner who doesnt deny it. the games a big business now – plcs with alan sugar and martin edwards and that started it and then abramovich bailed ‘chelski’ out and signed peter CUNTyon to do a united in west london, and now investors are flooding the club game. there are ancient laws the fa never updated that stop clubs from becoming profit making orgs that the plc drive loopholed.

hell, why does the premiership exist? or the champions league? to seperate the elite clubs from the rest, get more money for the ‘big clubs’. same for G14, what the fuck is that about. the club games a joke now.

hell, why does the premiership exist? or the champions league? to seperate the elite clubs from the rest, get more money for the ‘big clubs’. same for G14, what the fuck is that about. the club games a joke now.

Man, I actually largely agree, so yeah. You are a good lad

mossy – cheers. i reckon therell be a big split, between top level clubs who’ll eventually fuck off to form a jet setting super league, and everyone else. fair play to FC united, even though their mancs, and AFC wimbledon, nice to see fans getting organised, taking things into their own hands, instead of shelling 45 for a ticket or 800 for the season and then moaning about it in the pub and trying to bottle me because i called him a plastic cunt. i thought the laughing stock thats mk dons would have discouraged them, but no KFC bates the dodgy cunt had one more trick up his sleeve – insanely rich russian businessman! now we’re a ‘global brand’, theres no atmosphere except for mh lower and shed (cuntyon wants a new stadium too, the horrible penis head) and fancy greedy cunts like a hole (arsenal did well to lose the tool) bollock and swp play for us. i was a proud chelsea fan 3 /4 years ago, last match i went to was the zola testimonial and i REFUSE to spend a penny on the fuckers now. if matthew harding hadnt died.

rant over sorry i write essays about football because of the godawful state its in even the england teams a pile of wank now.

JOHN MADDEN

Justin Hoyte’s goal last night for Arsenal in the 4-0 win over Charlton was the clubs first goal scored by an English player in the Premiership for 14 months. The last one came from Sol Campbell.

Bunch of French wogs.

Quite true. Edited. But lol (in bold).

arsenal fielding 12 players?? cheating diving whinging foreign cunts 😛

off tottenham court road either on or near centrepoint there was a massive poster of freddie in nothing but tommy hilfiger cockpants, i thought it was funny that he had a cock the size of a bus on that poster – bit of subtle ‘what men want’ psychology there

Just curious to what people think, because I think Tilson is a top manager, despite Southend’s position (successive promotion shot us in da foot mir?). Also, I find it refreshing that in these ruthless days of manager sacking, a chairman whose club is at the bottom of the league would put so much faith in his manager.

I can’t wait for Charlton to get relegated.

He still lives in his fucking pikey caravan D:

—

And hey Twilko! Where’ve you been nigger?

i get the whole protecting the ‘English game’ and the national side and all that, but isnt it slighty racist to say, ‘you can only have xyz’ number of forgeiners in your squad?

1000th post. Go me.

Think about what you’re saying. That’s the biggest trophy in Europe. The one that all the biggest teams want, and we beat them all to it. Awesome achievement from an awesome team.

I don’t see any other North West team achieving that now or any time soon, tbh.

Arsenal were nearly our carbon copy last year (poor league form possibly because of good cup runs), and Chelsea are shaping up to be the same this term.

Emphasis on ‘other’, Minty. The Champions League is the biggest domestic knock out tournament in the world, fair play, you won it. But the problem with Liverpool is inconsistency. Third in the league presently they might be, but six defeats on the road in the league so far does not constitute to awesome at all, the ever increasing gap between them and Man United and Chelsea is going to increase further. The league is a marathon, which Liverpool are not good enough to run. CL winners perhaps, but in the past now, the moment is gone and it isn’t coming back to Anfield.

>.O (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/6200037.stm)

make no mistake, Rafa is the man to win it for Liverpool.

Not.

Solid defence, some of the best midfielders around, and Kuyt and Bellamy will tear many teams asunder. They’ve replaced Hyypia, maybe they need a few more players to enhance the squad, but i dont see any reason, if they get some consistency, why they cant challenge for the league next season.

Ok, six defeats early on in the season with all new faces finding their feet and looking at new formations, tactics etc. But look who we played: Everton, Bolton, United, Chelsea and Arsenal all away.

We’re on a decent run, Ewood Park result aside. If United and Chelsea slip up, which they both have in recent weeks, and we continue to find the form we are (eight clean sheets in nine games), whilst making sure we beat both the big two and Arsenal at home, don’t be suprised if we’re in the mix at the end.

And if Barca take us lightly, we’ll have their arse as well.

talking about Arsenals lack of English players? big deal. they are a class side with class players, who cares where they are from?

i get the whole protecting the ‘English game’ and the national side and all that, but isnt it slighty racist to say, ‘you can only have xyz’ number of forgeiners in your squad?

I care. The whole beauty of it being the English league is that whilst we can watch breathtaking football from foreign talent, the English lads who used to provide the backbone of the team could learn from them.

The word racism doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. It’s used all too frequently by the PC brigade to justify actions beyond their control. It’s like Paul Ince banging on about chairmen being racist as there are only a few black managers, despite the fact that a large majority of black players don’t apply to go into management. They go into coaching, where there are a large number anyway.

If the cunts who continue to apply their misguided left wing politics stop using words like racism when a more accurate word would be ‘injustice against the majority’, then perhaps i’ll take more heed of it.

i dont think there’s any danger of that not happening, i mean look at pretty much every side, the spine of the team is english or british isles or w/e. i cant see that changing either.

newcastle: given, taylor, parker, dyer
liverpool: carragher, gerrard
man yoo: ferdinand, scholes, rooney
chelsea: terry, lampard
spurs: robinson, king, defoe

The word racism doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. It’s used all too frequently by the PC brigade to justify actions beyond their control.

i agree with you, but i think limiting the number of forgeiners is wrong. i mean, would that happen in any other profession?

It’s like Paul Ince banging on about chairmen being racist as there are only a few black managers, despite the fact that a large majority of black players don’t apply to go into management. They go into coaching, where there are a large number anyway.

yeah, he’s full of it. racism(apart from Spain, Turkey etc and small minorities has been pretty much stamped out of football). i dont see any black person having a problem in becoming a manager or anything.

If the cunts who continue to apply their misguided left wing politics stop using words like racism when a more accurate word would be ‘injustice against the majority’, then perhaps i’ll take more heed of it.

it is an over-used word, i agree, as is the whole ‘race-card’ bullshit, but i think you’re moving away from football a bit there.

I’m on here everyday, however the only thing I’ve felt inclined to post about recently was lychees.

Hey.

Lychees are more important than football now? Bastard.

Poor guy, I bet if Palace hadn’t sold him to Blackburn he’d still be going strong. I think we can both feel partly responsible for his motorcycle accident.

No Jarosik, it’s all your fault.

If the cunts who continue to apply their misguided left wing politics stop using words like racism when a more accurate word would be ‘injustice against the majority’, then perhaps i’ll take more heed of it.

basically agreein’

Also, faggots dont dive or surround referee’s because they enjoy behaving like whining children.

I have a metaphor which goes a little bit like this: Lower League football is the woman who you will end up marrying one day – she is sincere, and honest and doesn’t expect the world from you. She’ll stick with you through thick and thin, and taking her on a date is always moderately priced. She may not be the best looking lady in the world, but you can definately be promised a great romp in the sack.

Premiership football is like a stunning beauty, everything about her looks great and she’d keep you up all night with rampant, RAMPANT sex. But scratch away to reveal the truth behind the thin surface, and you find yourself an uber-bitch, some strumped up little tartlet who will take all your money, and leave you in the gutter, weeping into your pillow while you masturbate over the sex you used to have.

a lot of fans these days, go to games out of duty and all that bs, rather then enjoyment.

the modern premiership player(almost without exception) has no redeeming traits, whatsoever.

Robbie Savage.

and a few others.

Favourites Chelsea take on League One side Nottingham Forest, who defeated Premiership strugglers Charlton in the last round while United’s prize for eliminating Aston Villa is another Premiership team in the form of high-flying Portsmouth.

Arsenal, conquerors of holders Liverpool in the previous round, face Premiership rivals Bolton while West Ham United welcome fellow strugglers Watford.

Swansea of League One, who shocked Sheffield United in the last round, have been handed an away tie against Chester or Ipswich.

Tottenham Hotspur will face lower league opposition Southend or Barnsley but first have to overcome Cardiff City in a replay.

Blackburn Rovers face a trip to either Queens Park Rangers or Luton while Manchester City will have a home tie against Southampton if Stuart Pearce’s side can overcome Sheffield Wednesday.

Birmingham City or Newcastle United entertain Reading or Burnley while Bristol City or Coventry welcome the winners of the Hull versus Middlesbrough replay.

Derby, sitting second in the Championship, welcome League Two opposition in the form of Bristol Rovers while Barnet or Colchester take on Peterborough or Plymouth Argyle.

Crystal Palace face Championship rivals Preston while Blackpool take on Norwich.

In other ties, Wolves or Oldham welcome West Bromwich Albion while Leicester or Fulham are up against Stoke.

Ties will be played on Friday 26, Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 January.

Flahavan is some kind of uber-keeper.

The club have a reputation for having a large Jewish following, with some Tottenham supporters referring to themselves as Yids, a nickname derived from the Yiddish word for "Jew." The term was originally used as a racist provocation, but was co-opted by Spurs fans in the late 1960s, after years of having had anti-semitic racial abuse directed at them by opposing supporters, to deflect its impact and to differentiate themselves from other clubs’ fans. A small element among the Tottenham crowd (including many gentiles) developed related chants such as "Yiddos!" and "Yid Army!" in an effort to fire up the team.

however, they are aquitting themselves very well. Taylor looks a class act at centre-back, and dominated Rooney when we played Utd last week. Milner is having a great season, and the young lads from the youth acedemy have done well. our full team can give anyone a game, its just we never have a full-team 😡

Why the name change btw?

Abou Diaby is back tonight after 8 long, cruel, desolate months on the sidelines after that tool at Sunderland mangled his ankle, intentionally I might add. Diaby is honestly one of the best looking young players I think Wenger has ever bought, and that’s saying a lot considering he made a 4000% profit on Nicolas Anelka. He basically is Vieira’s reincarnation- ignoring, of course, that their lives overlap- and if Arsenal were on the ball they’d have had him building up his upper body strength over the past 8 months, like Roy Keane after Haaland ruined his leg, and he should be like some sort of monster. Point is, he is a very talented player and will forge an awesome partnership with Fabrgas in the centre of midfield for years to come!

you queer or wot

Also: 1-0 Arsenal!

Edit: thx Fowler =( 1-1

Edit the second: 2-1 Arsenal, Baptista free kick!

Edit the third: 3-1 Arsenal, I can’t remember who scored though !_!

Edit the fourth: 4-1 Arsenal- half time also.

Edit: 5-2, Gerrard scored.

Feed the beast and he will score!

FUCKING CUNTRAGS

Obviously only when he played for Southend though, innit.

Teams like Real and Chelsea ruin so many talented players by signing them for ridiculous money and then never playing them.

Wright-Phillips, anybody?

Officially taking bets on when David Beckham: The Motion Picture graces our screens.

I mean, just look at his range

Rumours are circulating that Jack Nicholson is the early favourite to play the leading role.

The man is a ghetto mirror image of homer.

unless MLS has metamorphised into a league with, you know, quality

Better watch out MossY, Blackburn v Arsenal tomorrow! 😛

IN THE MLS, NO-ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM

GOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLL!

Robbie Savage.lol in hindsight of today’s display against arsenal.

He hit the turf like a welsh powder puff.

Ha.Ha.

Not.

Fucking shitty Rovers.

lol

Get in lads

~

~

yes, excellent.

becks getting a slice of LA galaxies profits. 128 mil in 5 years. biggest sports deal for an athlete ever i think. and he claims its not just about money.

liverpool, absolute tosh against arse in the cups. arse, best youth squad in europe, they ran rings around liverpool at anfield. last time that happened was when barcelona came to visit.

chelsea’s devolving into a corporate circus gathers more pace, instead of slowing. cracker.

i think it would take a miracle for him to stay, a miracle based on relationships between people and personalities completely reversing themselves.

here comes guus hiddink.

Article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/birmingham_city/6254879.stm)

In summary, Newcastle may well have the team to finish in the top 6 but they lack consistency.

The Yids are going down.

In summary, Newcastle may well have the team to finish in the top 6 but they lack consistency.

dont remind me ; ;

The Yids are going down.

Hell yeah.

Also, up yours Benitez. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/6274157.stm)

😎

Also, up yours Benitez. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/6274157.stm)At best he would have been a backup to steve finnan, so i’m delighted he’s decided to go down with west ham. I’m sure once the DIC takeover goes ahead we’ll have dani alves in anyway.

Have fun in the Championship you stupid cock.

in the playoffs and staring promotion in the face, like a dirty tramp lying in a gutter who suddenly has an inclination to suceed as he’s found an empy brown paper bag to slip a bottle of bourbon and a razz mag in.

Still lying in 6th place though, so i’d imagine european qualification is still very much on the cards!

LOL.

that is all.

Still lying in 6th place though, so i’d imagine european qualification is still very much on the cards!

Pompey have been mightily impressive so far, but they still have to keep it up like any other club chasing European football. Outside of the top four, they’re just another team, when all is said and done IMO.

lololololololol

he likes the slower pace of the Championship, perhaps?

lol j/k <3

Meph <3.14159

EDIT – Lucas Niell is a big raging homo.

Perhaps Rafa requires information about the Amber Nectar.

"footballing reasons"

rofl.

Also, Dani Alves ftw. This takeover looks set to go ahead, and rafa’s always been keen on him.

Time to revive the ‘Post A Cunt’ Thread.

Edit – Welcome back to the top of the first page thread, where football belongs, for all to see.

Where was the shakespearean call to arms, meph >:

Also, rename it ffshrine’s resident footie thread and sticky, imo.

qft

i have no comment on the FA cup ; ;

Also, rename it ffshrine’s resident footie thread and sticky, imo.

in other news, we’ve supposedly bid ???5m for Ryan Babel

this pleases me.

The big girl’s blouse probably won’t be available for west ham’s upcomer against liverpool >:

CERTAINLY NOT AT THE EMIRATES!

Jester, Lucas is a cunt and I will never forgive him, plus he’s injured which is funny.

CERTAINLY NOT AT THE EMIRATES!

I rate him.

he’s called the Dutch Henry ~

i dont think we have a snowballs in getting him, but still.

God bless bruno cheyrou~

he’s mustard.

Discuss.

this news excites me more than bea gascoigne accessorised in something i find IMMENSELY EDIBLE

also watch out manchester, the mousers are on your tail

LOL

This should be interesting ;_;

LOL

Quite sensible if you think about it. Staying in the Premiership is worth more than ???18m and keeping Bent is a vital component for keeping Charlton up.

I’m sure if they do go down, they’ll reconsider.

They can’t afford to reject such a sum of money, imo.

This should be interesting ;_;

well if he actually plays he might do a decent job, it’s hard to tell since he never plays for west ham

"DIC pulls out."

Intentional, or oblivious?

LOL

Barclays Premiership

Bolton v Charlton, 20:00
Chelsea v Blackburn, 19:45
Man Utd v Watford, 20:00
Newcastle v Aston Villa, 20:00

Carling Cup

Arsenal v Tottenham (agg 2-2), 19:45

The Coca-Cola Football League Championship

Southampton v Sheff Wed, 19:45
West Brom v Plymouth, 19:45

AFC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> NFC ^98345

Will be interesting if he strikes up a decent partnership with Eastwood. Also, finally moved off the bottom on goal difference, 3-1 away win over Birmingham =D

Anything Newcastle can fuck up, Southend can do properly…lolz

2. Mascherano is actually a very good player, I feel. Pardew never played him for some crazy reason and I think Curbishley more or less just had faith in Pardew’s judgement and didn’t really give him a chance either. He’s a strong defensive player and an excellent tackler though he is no playmaker.

3. Good going Arsenal! Probably be massacred in the final since it will be Arsenal youth v Chelsea but still, it’s a fantastic achievement to have made it so far especially when their opponents have been Spurs, Liverpool and Everton- all good sides.

Duff had a good game, Milner was outstanding yet again. I wonder how long it’ll be before the kid gets a England call-up. He sure as fuck deserves one.

this is quite possibly the funniest thing i have read for some time.

good show, sir moss.

also

4-0?

we really are going to have to go some to catch the bastards up ;(

that image never fails to me me lol.

this was pretty lol though.

Cole:

"My worst fears were confirmed when, as Thierry and I sat in the centre circle after the final whistle, his name was sung from the rooftops while my contribution was recognised by a deafening silence.

"As his chants faded away we waited for mine. And we waited. And there was nothing. ‘They’re not bothered about me’, I said, resigned to the fact. It was like I was the invisible man."

Oh my god, talk about EGO!! This guy’s is huge. Can you imagine if every other star player started crying because their name wasn’t sung in the centre circle?

Cole:

"As it turned out, the Arsenal board had other ideas about rubber-stamping Mr Dein’s recommendation. At a board meeting held two days before our 1–0 away defeat at Bolton in January, it was decided the maximum offer should be ???55,000 a week. I don’t believe the board gave a damn about keeping me. It preferred to haggle over a difference of ???5,000."

Ok, so first of all, why do keep knocking Dein. If he recommended ???60k and the board said ???55k, then it was obviously not Dein’s fault. Do you know what a recommendation is?

"I don’t believe the board gave a damn about keeping me."

Ok, so Dein offers you ???35k, which you call a "hell of a lot of money", but you want more because even though it’s a hell of a lot money, you want a hell of a lot more, so Arsenal offer you ???55k, and somehow you took this as meaning Arsenal don’t want you?!?

Cole:

"Ash! Are you listening?" said a virtually hyperventilating Jonathan. "I’m here in the office and David Dein is saying they aren’t going to give you ???60k a week. They’ve agreed ???55k and this is their best and final offer. Are you happy with that?"

When I heard Jonathan repeat the figure of ???55k, I nearly swerved off the road. "He is taking the piss, Jonathan!" I yelled down the phone. I was so incensed. I was trembling with anger."

First of all, it’s illegal to use your mobile while driving dimwit. Second, ahem… see how this reads to the man on the street Cashley. You are "trembling with anger" because Arsenal only offered you ???55 GRAND A WEEK!!

So what does poor Ashley do next, poor downtrodden Ashley and his paltry ???55k a week. Does he go to the board and resign? Does he say I will leave if I don’t get ???60k – it’s called negotiation Cashley, which is what Arsenal have been doing all along – no, he has an illegal meeting with Chelsea. Hey, that’s real classy stuff.

This guy is the laughing stock of football. There is not a single person in this country, or anywhere I should imagine, who will have sympathy for this egotistical berk. And he’s obviously living on fat head planet if he possibly thinks anyone is going to sympathise with him or even relate to him.

But thanks for the book Cole, it’s all there in black and white. A blueprint of what money and greed does to a footballer’s brain. Cole is an utterly vile and disgusting character, with no values, humility, self-respect or morals. Living in another world. I’m glad he’s gone, and to a club more soulless and ungrateful than Arsenal could ever be in a million years – they should get on like a house on fire.

what planet is that cunt on? seriously.

To do my ironing.

what a greedy, virulent twat

yeah, his public image isnt exactly, prestine. and i can see why from reading those extracts. i personally wouldnt stop punching him if i started.

either way, Arsenal got the best side of that deal. Gallas is world-class and they got a nice sum of money, and got rid of an unhappy player.

Would any other club offer him the ???60k per week he feels he’s worth? I’d guess not.

Also, why the fuck are footballers releasing books in the middle of their careers? I always thought that was something done when you retire. You know, when you’ve actually achieved things? :rolleyes:

Cole’s got to be one of the biggest tw@ts around in football.

I also agree that Arsenal must be laughing all the way to the bank about getting Gallas the way they did.

I think that could be the end of the Pompey European revolution.

Unless they get a string of results together like last year.

Unless they get a string of results together like last year.

well the top 10 is still good

for pompey, at least

for pompey, at least

who’d have thought pompey would even be in the top ten? even though harry is probably certifiable (james is the best keeper in europe he said, and then he signed djimi traore) he’s done a great job with signings, keeping quality loyals like lualua, oneil, ashdown and taylor and reinforcing with prem class players and they’ve played good football and stayed in a very reasonable position all season. by all accounts most people would have predicted another relegation battle ergo, this seasons a success.

my best mate krissy’s a pompey fan =)

c’mon, a lot of clubs have spent a lot of money before and not got their money’s worth. newcastle are a prime example. you could say inter milan but thats more not quite living up to supreme expectations, although they have spent silly money in the last 15 years and got nearly nothing for it. i saw a lot of press predictions at the beginning of the season that said pompey 15th or lower and they’ve spat in the face of those know-it-alls.

my best mate krissy’s a pompey fan =)

exactly, we’ve done pretty well considering. harry might be a bit nuts but he’s one hell of a manager, saved us twice, got us up and now he’s turned us into a bit of a force. decent record really, i’ve forgotten all about saints.

In theory, Benfica could win the Premier League. According to one of these business trades act of eighteen seventy one, or something like that, any football team in the world is well within their right to ply their trade wherever the hell they want. So saying, that Benfica, or anyone alike, are actually businesses and not clubs and don’t have to play in the league where the club originates.

Bayern Munich threaten to move to Italy all the time if they don’t get as much money as they want because they are crazy and love money lots and lots. Saying that, Italy, or any other prospective league, have to accept them first or they’ll just be Italian on paper but unable to participate in official competition.

fix’d

also;

LOL

I don’t like the idea of following Arsenal’s suit with naming the new stadium after a sponsor though, although it may well be inevitable in the long run.

The sarcasm in that post is overuled by the sheer irony in the potential truth.

Becks will be coming back to England.

Dear God.

There is no point berating the manager. There is no point making excuses.

England do not have enough top class players who are able to play together. Pure and simple.

1-1 with San Marino till about the 96th minute when they score a winner.

Would have been a great result for San Marino and also us as we are in the same group.

Stephen Ireland scored with the last kick of the game.

saved Staunton his job, imo.

Looking forward very much to Croke Park now if he does stay, I think it’s fair to say.

As for England, Spain are a good side and you have to play at a high tempo to stop them controlling the game. England didn’t and got beaten pretty convincingly. Great goal by Iniesta though.

McClaren could be another one sitting quite uncomfortably in his job…….I always said, they should have gone for Allardyce.

but its a results business, and we won. and no-one else will want the job. thats what will save him.

… Hmmm.

Also, there is no point berating the manager – the squad is crap as well.

No, really.

Also, there is no point berating the manager – the squad is crap as well.

Then i’ll berate the FA for yet again appointing a dour cunt who they can control instead of a decent, solid tactician with a bit of flair. The man is a fucking mug, and deserves a slap. But yes, the squad are a heap of shit as well.

There is a reason though. England do not play to their strengths. They’ve been trying to slow the pace down, concentrating on their movement and passing, and grind out 1-0 victories like the continentals do for about five years now. And basically, they can’t do it. Not at all.

What England should do is play to their strengths. They’ve got some players with genuine pace and with the league we have in the Pemiership, we should up the tempo early on and keep it going. Instead of playing stop-start on-off football, we should go at teams from the off. Hike the bloody ball forward if needs be. There’s no substitute for shitting a team up like the English do. Look at the mousers in the Champs League final. They made the best team on the continent look like a bucnh of fatties from a pub outfit for a good half hour.

Pick the right players with a bit of passion for the shirt and get stuck in. Nevermind who it’s against. England was always designed to be a fast running, bone crunching tackling, long balling hoofing bunch of thugs who murder you on and off the pitch, shag your women and defocate on your flag.

And that’s what we want back. That passion. Fuck the continentals. Literally. Fuck them all. In the arse.

Also, if in the long term this plan for England getting the passing, tactical awareness and movement right is to work then wee need to start exporting our young lads (i’m talking 12 upwards here) to places like Spain, Italy and Germany to learn from the best there. They send their lot over here and that’s fine, but we don’t reciprocate And it’s a crying shame.

And until we start getting the passion back in our national side, i’m boycotting the cunts and supporting the Jerries. Hell, I supported them after we got kicked out of the World Cup by the dirty wops, and i’ll do it again.

Wunderbar, or whatever.

P.S. Frank Lamptard is a greasy little oik, and should be strung up by his boot laces whilst being spat on by a lepper with cold sores.

All teams have blips even the best. Sacking a manager who’s proven in the Premiership and Europe won’t really do a whole lot of good to be honest.

I won’t deny that keeping an average Premiership outfit afloat is easy but it’s not exactly top level is it? When compared to the likes of Alex Ferguson (albeit he’d never take the job) he doesn’t compare as a domestic manager, and that’s where international managers are plucked from mostly, the domestic game.

Oh, and Maclarens’ Boro side lost that UEFA Cup final didn’t they.

And Boro were shit before he came along and won them their first trophy for fuck knows how long.

Over.

Maclaren.

Any.

Day.

Of.

The.

Week.

I say they promote Psycho already.

Well, I won’t argue with you on that. 😉

LOL

that is all.

*smug*

Everton 1-0 Blackburn GAY
Johnson 10

Man Utd 2-0 Charlton QUALITY
Park 24
Fletcher 82

Newcastle 2-1 Liverpool GAY
Martins 26
Solano (pen) 70
Bellamy 6

Reading 2-0 Aston Villa GAY
Sidwell 16
Sidwell 90

Sheff Utd 2-1 Tottenham QUALITY
Hulse 27
Jagielka (pen) 62
Jenas 2

West Ham 0-1 Watford FUCKING SUPERB
Henderson (pen) 12

qft.

this is the truth

also: pompey won at last, hooray, we are maintaining our bid for europe.

and poor Wigan ;(

If I were Kirkland, i’d have thrown my detachable limbs at his mush.

Southend 5 – 0 QPR

Fucking get in lads! The Shrimpers are staying up, just you wait!

NI and ROI swap places, 49th and 46th respectively.

Wales down one to 75th 🙁

Scotland up to 20th despite not playing any games? Wtf?

E.g. Burkina Faso 😉

Missing two penalties in a match is a criminal offence……..

The game was really one-sided, although Bolton as usual didn’t give up and were competitive. In terms of real chances though Arsenal were way ahead.

It was a shame that Arsenal won through, cos they’re cunts, but they were the worthy winners, tbh.

QFT.

It was a shame that Arsenal won through, cos they’re cunts, but they were the worthy winners, tbh.

I apreciate how you can respect a Team that you hate when they win, though I thought their performance was almost terrible though you don’t win 3-1 by playing abysmal.

Also, Arsenal may have played pretty terrible, but I think, overall, they carved out more chances than Bolton.

Me? No, Can’t stand them. My Dad’s a West Ham fan so I suppose they would be the team I’d most support in the Premiership but to be honest I don’t really have any paticular favourites. Hope West Ham stay up though, esp. given the Welsh internationals there.

=/

Would have been better if Arsenal had got raped in every way imaginable, because the FA cup is crap when just the top sides are in the last 8 or so.

Also, Blackpool were bloody unlucky against Delia City. Last minute extra time scramble ;(

England head coach Steve McClaren insists that until David Beckham retires from international football he will always have a chance of making his squad.

The former England captain was unceremoniously dropped by the ex-Middlesbrough man after he replaced Sven Goran Eriksson last summer.

McClaren has resisted the chance to recall the Real Madrid ace on numerous occasions, including last week’s 1-0 home defeat to Spain.

He now insists that the likes of Beckham, David James and Sol Campbell, all have a chance of a recall as long as they are available for selection.

Asked whether people have misread McClaren shutting the door on Beckham, he told Sky Sports News: "Yes, of course they have.

"It’s the same with David James and Sol Campbell.

"I reiterated a few weeks ago after watching Portsmouth and Manchester United, they gave excellent performances there.

"Unless they retire in international football everyone is under consideration. I don’t retire them, they retire themselves and they haven’t, none of them have, David Beckham included."

Meanwhile, McClaren have moved quickly to quash talk he held a crisis meeting with senior players following last week’s defeat at Old Trafford to Spain.

"No, there are meetings with players, but crisis? Never in crisis. Just opportunities to learn and do things better," he continued.

"The big frustration of being an international manager after a game is de-briefing the players and closing a game. So getting the messages to the players after a game can be difficult.

"In the coming weeks, although I haven’t decided how, we’ll get that message across. We’ll close that Spain game down and quickly move onto Israel."

————————————————————————-

I think it’s ironic that many of the people who were calling for Beckham’s exclusion are now calling for his re-instation to the team.

But do you think he should return, especailly now he is going to the USA?

To be honest, Aaron Lennon would be my pick for right wing. Perhaps Beckham should be picked to give him so inspiration/confidence in a covering role, i’m not sure.

Basically, players should never be picked on their reputation. If they’re performing week in week out their selection should be guaranteed. That’s why the like of Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, and Cashley should be dropped if they don’t put the effort in that is expected of them.

It’s an honour to be picked for your country, not a cash cow.

Quoted for the goddamned truth. It’s something that so many of these "stars" claim, but how many actually believe, or act like it?

He’s a hugely over-rated player in any event.

I reckon we should call up Freddie Eastwood.

also matty taylor, linvoy primus and gary o’neil

fix’d ~

he is fuckin ace

i havent stopped lollin at this, a leopard never changes its spots.

Edit: http://www.liverpool.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=52446

This sounds infinitesimally more likely.

why just, ‘no comment’?

Edit: yeah, i read that earlier Jest, but it still doesnt answer why LFC have only said ‘No comment.’

why just, ‘no comment’?

Edit: yeah, i read that earlier Jest, but it still doesnt answer why LFC have only said ‘No comment.’Well for one, this event was alleged to take place during the early hours of Friday morning. It’s only sunday now, meaning any official liverpool statement would be released early in the coming week.

Personally, I don’t think such a statement will be released at all. Liverpoolfc.tv will publish an interview with both players explaining what really happened, rafa will throw in his two cents, and that will be that.

Honestly, I know you hate bellamy and all, but a little logical discretion would go a long way.

i didnt say it was 100% true and im quite aware the News of the World is a rag of a paper, but if anyone would do something like that, it WOULD be Bellamy.

"I met this morning with the entire first team squad and made it absolutely clear to all of them the responsibilities that come with playing for this club and the way they are expected to conduct themselves both on and off the pitch.

"The players worked extremely hard at last week’s training camp, but we will take disciplinary action and fine any of them who are found to have breached club rules during our stay in Portugal. I’ve told the players this and they understand and accept the decision I have taken.

"Despite reports to the contrary, the spirit amongst the lads is very good with everyone looking forward to the game against Barcelona on Wednesday.

"We remain totally focussed on what will be a very tough game against the defending European Champions."

From my interpretation of that, only a minor transgression between the two could have taken place. Had anything close to the notw story actually occured, bellamy would have been sacked instantly.

also, NOTW, are the Suns sister paper, correct?

someone has an agenda perhaps?

all the same, it was pretty lol.

someone has an agenda perhaps?

all the same, it was pretty lol.This would not suprise me at all tbh, especially given the poor sales of the sun and news of the world on merseyside to date. What’s the harm in further aggravating them if it leads to higher sales elsewhere? It’s been what, 17-18 years since the hillsborough article the sun published? and still no real apology in sight.

also: footballs lol

the whole thing smacks of lads fucking about on a beano out in the med. drunken larks and all that.

if liverpool do cart bellamy out, it’ll be because he’s an under performing, mouthy little cunt.

im surprised to hear you say that Minty, as much as I despise the cunt, i think he’s a fantastic player.

mind you, you’re not the first Liverpool fan to say that.

what’s the general consensus on him?

;-;

Apparently we dominated, but failed to stick away our chances 🙁

Walk on
through the wind
Walk on
through the rain
Tho’ your dreams be tossed and bloooooooooooooooooown
Walk on,
walk ooooooooooooooooooooon
With hoooooooooooooooooope in your heart
And you’ll neeeeeeeeeeeeveeeeeeeeeeeer
waaaaaaaaaaaalk
alooooooooooooooone
You’ll
NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEER
WAAAALK
alone

http://www.kocica.org/images/liverpool.gif

If i’d know that, id have so taken out 20 euro on it ;(

you should have asked a garda what he thought

Who is the better manager: Wenger or Mourinho

i voted Wenger, and saw that he has 3 times the votes Mourinho has.

He’s a much better coach too, and he works well with seemingly every player he’s ever had, they play much, much better football then Chelsea. And yeah, with much less resources, he manages to have Arsenal competitive in all 4 competitions.

Only problem with Wenger and Arsenal is they havent learned how to lose.

And yes, in my opinion, he is a better manager than Mourinho, though Mourinho’s actual achievements are probably superior.

I don’t actually agree that Arsenal don’t give young English players fair representation. There are plenty of talented English players who have come through the Arsenal youth ranks, just because they didn’t make the cut at Arsenal cannot be blamed on Wenger. For example: Jermaine Pennant, Ashley Cole, Matthew Upson, Stuart Taylor, David Bentley, Justin Hoyte and Theo Walcott. I’d like to see a club that has produced more English talent than Arsenal, even if they don’t currently own many. Furthermore, British players are overpriced, so that isn’t helpful. Curtis Davies, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Gareth Bale and even Theo Walcott are all prime examples. Why would Wenger spend extortionate amounts of money on an English left-back when he can command more loyalty from a kid he plucked from the Parisian suburbs?

I haven’t seen you in a long time.

Post in GD more.

LOL

Also, West Ham, lol.

also, Newcastle were rubbish, although Boro parking the bus in front of their goal, and an inspiried Woodgate didnt help.

Anyways, I don’t think Liverpool are going to win tonight, 1-0 Barcelona or 1-1, but I still think they will go through. The only thing that might pose a real difficulty to Liverpool regarding progressing into the last eight is if Barcelona really, and I mean super duper really, play as a team. As individuals they are the best team in Europe, no question in my mind, but they lack cohesion and collective drive.

He’s a good shout for me. Cannavaro, Nesta, Ayala all quality.

Woodgate would be the best defender in the world if he didnt get injured so damn much.

Question mark over his attitude and discipline maybe, but not really different to Woodgate being injured half the time to be fair!

Also, come fucking on the pool. Should have walked them at least 3-1 on the night, but a win is a win.

Also, have it my son. Can’t believe the final results of the last two games though. Should have won both, tbf.

Pardon me for advertising somewhat, but it’s relevant to the thread at least. If the link disappears I’ll sign back in and send it via PM if you want it. It’s a nice board for everything about football and it’d be nice to chat with some of the better Shriners away from the Shrine some more.

Capello is likely regretting his decision now Mossy, he obviously let him go on loan as he thought he’d get injured and didn’t fancy paying his wages (which are reportedly pretty high!)

Either that or the language barrier. Spanish, English and Italian don’t mix well.

And on the basis of what I’ve seen this year if Woodgate isn’t the world’s best then he is certainly England’s best. Terry and Ferdinand? Pah.

Wales manager John Toshack has named Danny Gabbidon and James Collins in his squad for the Euro 2008 qualifiers with the Republic of Ireland and San Marino.
The West Ham centre-backs have been out injured since January, although Collins played a reserve game last Tuesday.

Gabbidon is still a worry, and likely to join the suspended Jason Koumas in missing the Ireland game on 24 March.

Koumas will be available to face San Marino four days later as Wales look to make up ground on the Group D leaders.

Germany and the Czech Republic lead the way on 10 points, with Wales one from bottom with three points but with a game in hand.

The Republic of Ireland game will be the first football international played at Dublin’s Croke Park, with Wales back at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium for the visit of San Marino.

Gabbidon and Collins have not played a competitive match since mid-January, but West Ham are happy for them to join the Wales squad.

Carl Robinson retains his place despite not currently playing competitive games.

The midfielder was released by Norwich in January to allow him to join Major League Soccer side Toronto, whose season does not start until next month.

His last game was Wales’ friendly goalless draw with Northern Ireland on 6 February.

Striker Robert Earnshaw (groin) and defender Mark Delaney (knee) are unavailable because of injury.

Shrewsbury’s David Edwards is the only uncapped player in the 26-man squad.

——————————————————————————–

Wales squad for the Euro 2008 qualifiers with the Republic of Ireland and San Marino:
Danny Coyne (Burnley), Paul Jones (QPR), Darren Ward (Sunderland), Gareth Bale (Southampton), Danny Collins (Sunderland), James Collins (West Ham United), Richard Duffy (Portsmouth – on loan at Swansea City), Steve Evans (Wrexham), Danny Gabbidon (West Ham United), Craig Morgan (Peterborough United), Lewin Nyatanga (Derby County – on loan at Barnsley), Sam Ricketts (Hull City), Andrew Crofts (Gillingham), Arron Davies (Yeovil Town), Simon Davies (Fulham), David Edwards (Shrewsbury Town), Carl Fletcher (Crystal Palace), Jason Koumas (West Bromwich Albion), Joe Ledley (Cardiff City), Carl Robinson (Toronto), Craig Bellamy (Liverpool), David Cotterill (Wigan Athletic), Jermaine Easter (Wycombe Wanderers), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Chris Llewelyn (Wrexham), Paul Parry (Cardiff City).

fucking dumb

On topic, that is absolutely ridiculous and there is not a chance it will be passed. In a tight game if a team deserves to draw, they deserve a point. And imagine, with all the games Watford have drawn this season all they’d need is 5 Andy Johnsons and they’d probably be pushing for a Champions League place this season.

fucking dumb

hahaha this is completely fucking stupid

first the americans take over our clubs, now we’re turning into american football

i tell you what, the goals will be three meters wide and tall next.

first the americans take over our clubs, now we’re turning into american football

i tell you what, the goals will be three meters wide and tall next.

and after the fa cup winners receive the trophy they will be all YES WE ARE NOW THE WORLD CHAMPIONS OF THIS FOOTBALL HOORAY

I’m a Geordie, so what…

Roeder is fully to blame. For his tactics, team selection, and the attitude the players seemed to have. we went looking for a 0-0 and when we went 1 down, we had no answer. shocking.

More like…BYKER GROVE FC

or was that the championship. maybe it was both!

also the present england squad resembles the renford rejects.

cunts =/

SWP is being wasted at Chelsea though D:

Also, Benitez needs to stfu about his reserves playing in the Football League.

Daego tosser.

Here’s my call:

Israel 1-1 England

Liechtenstein 0-2 Northern Ireland

Rep of Ireland 0-0 Wales

Scotland 1-0 Georgia

Andorra 0-5 England

Italy 2-0 Scotland

Northern Ireland 2-2 Sweden

Rep of Ireland 1-3 Slovakia

Wales 3-0 San Marino

Agree or disagree? Let the debate begin.

English cunts.

terrible game of football. two shit teams, going nowhere.

I was expecting this….

fuckin england

more like

Smokey!

they were pretty much a disgrace once again, espically after all their big words before the game.

Lampard is a over-rated, fat, waste of space, ill say once again.

drop lampard

like, off a cliff, preferably

also

i’ve hammered out my views repeatedly since the final whistle, and I can’t be arsed putting them down here. basically mclaren another fa patsy, pick players for sponsorship revenue not for good of country, rooney jug eared over rated cunt, lampard fat cockney muppet, none fit to wear shirt, hope get beat against andorra and stoned when get back to heathrow blah blah

i’m going for a slice of pie.

Good result for both the Irelands tonight, didn’t seriously expect Scotland to get anything from Italy so I’m not surprised there.

PS. Nugent is a goal-thieving c*nt. 😉

bad luck for pompey, again. although if a year ago you’d have offered me 9th place in the prem this season and safe from january i’d have taken it no problem

IN THE

WORLD

we only let liverpool win to make winning the premiership this year a real challenge because we will definitely win the premiership, yes.

that is like

up the bum!

Fucking Northern cunt rags ;-;

IN THE

WORLD

we only let liverpool win to make winning the premiership this year a real challenge because we will definitely win the premiership, yes.

Somethings tells me that it’s more likely to be Chelsea this time round. 🙁

Still I live in hope that I’m wrong!

I bet you sink pints as well, you beefy wotsit.

Man United are probably going to win the thing this time round, which means the league has been bought for slightly less money than last season. Not that I am complaining too much, the only way any team is going to win the Premiership is through spending lots, unless you are Arsenal and buy all the future best players in the world for 6p.

I bet you sink pints as well, you beefy wotsit.

Just occasionally lol, can’t do too much of it though. Bloats me up too much.

A GIRL TALKING FOOTBALL INACCURATELY.

Man United are probably going to win the thing this time round, which means the league has been bought for slightly less money than last season. Not that I am complaining too much, the only way any team is going to win the Premiership is through spending lots, unless you are Arsenal and buy all the future best players in the world for 6p.

Hmm you’re probably right, thinking about it.

SO DOES PREGNANCY, FEMALE.

LOL

There you go! Just for you. 😀

Man United are probably going to win the thing this time round, which means the league has been bought for slightly less money than last season. Not that I am complaining too much, the only way any team is going to win the Premiership is through spending lots, unless you are Arsenal and buy all the future best players in the world for 6p.

I’ve always said Arsenal are taking a gamble with their youth strategy. Plenty of young players lose their way or fail to develop as expected.

If all their young players come through they will be a force in 2-3 years time but if not Wenger might be looking at the sack.

Pikey North Essex cunts.

ONLY ONE TEAM REIGNS SUPREME IN ESSEX, I TELLS YA.

Sea-sea-sea siders ;-;

man u and roma

what about that then

man u and roma

what about that then

great match. as for the violence, absolutely despicable behaviour by the police that kind of discourages the common fan from wanting to go there, and encourages the common hooligan one would think because there was a lot of publicity about the warnings against travelling and avoiding the ultras, fucking scum, and clearly some manc fans still took to fighting. always many sides to a story but there will be fallout from it. again the cops out there were bang out of order, beating 200 shades of shit out of fans lying prostrate on the floor. of course that will help, policia. fucking monkeys.

spuds fighting in spain with cops the very next day LOL.

manc will go through, tough act to beat man u in this sort of form at OT. but we can hope.

just shocking scenes really

with an away goal, i’m betting 1-0 to utd on the return leg and them to go through.

in europe you get mental cunts going at each other with fucking knives, and homemade bombs chucked into copcars. WTF. turkey, italy, germany, poland, spain, russia, georgia and it happens in stadiums too. deluded politicians and authorities trying to brush it off should be sacked for negligence but when its common as muck and impossible to track what are they going to do about it.

back to the match yeah mancs will go through but im hoping roma can pull it out. counter attack is the key but mancs would LOVE another treble, get back at roman and chelsea. ‘oh look you won the tin cup well we won everything else you’re shit.’

oh dear at the gooners.

also HA at the mancs.

also 35 yarder from carvalho??

bloody hell.

what do you expect with swathes of chavs with nothing better to do? they love it, its like tribal warfare.

on a serious note, its a problem that cannot be solved by mere footballing authorities, let alone the collective press moaning about it to try and spur those authorities and even better government and local authorities into doing something more constructive and more groundbreaking at a basic level to try and change the mentality and reduce or wipe out racism, fighting, firms etc. from football.

theres so many factors, so much context, social and otherwise involved that its an impossibility to hope for our dithering authorities to get a grip on the problem.

but there’s nothing going on like it was in the 70s and 80s. the old firms are pretty much irrelevant now and are made up of mostly old men who were around back when they were a force. breaking hooliganism requires social change more than anything now.

as for pompey, all i can say is fucking yes. it’s about time we started winning again.

as for pompey, all i can say is fucking yes. it’s about time we started winning again.

PLAY UP POMPEY

I lolled.

Taylor saves Sib the Sexists blushes.

thank fuck, now we can rest easy and get this car crash of a season out of the way.

do you think roeder will still be around considering his comments about newcastle’s apparent inability to avoid fucking up and losing and his comments about being judged only on his players, the ones he brought to the club? as well as your shabby excuse for a defence

newcastle are capable of so much more with the squad they’ve got.

they havent won a thing since 1955 either i think

They need somebody with some big balls who will be all FUCK THE INGRAINING.

Not that I really care that much for Newcastle anyway =/

the european dream is still alive! sort of. and now we’re above reading harry’s got a better chance at manager of the year.

Or not. 🙁

Yet another thumping for the Shrimpers ;-;

FOR SHAME

4-2. seriously. WATFORD.

Play up pompey, pompey play up!

🙁

in other news, glad to see the milton keynes dons lost again.

FUCKING GET IN LADS

SEA SEA SEA SIDERS!

Had no idea whatsoever he qualified for us. He’s a quality player!

roma biggest shambles they could have been, looked lazy and tired and almost scared to play with the sort of tempo, confidence and employ any sort of tactic or gameplan to try and match their hosts. united on the other hand looked like the united of old. scary

chelsea! great win in spain, valencia played well but chelsea played some great football in the second half, 2 great saves from canizares against drogba and ballack, and morientes unlucky to hit the post.

3 out of 4 champions league semi finalists are english (liverpool are pretty much through) 😀 FUCKING GET IN! i remember when 3 spanish teams did that the year real beat valencia 3 0 in the final.

Just you wait.

Just you wait.

I would but I don’t think I’ll live for another 293 years Meph………;)

You’d be lucky!

Portsmouth 2-1 Newcastle.

Just thought I’d bring it to the thread’s attention.

7th place, we could still make europe. not that it’d be much good for us – without massive fortification, we couldn’t do europe along with the league and both cups at the moment. quality of the squad aside, we don’t have enough depth for it.

gj, bbc

7th place, we could still make europe. not that it’d be much good for us – without massive fortification, we couldn’t do europe along with the league and both cups at the moment. quality of the squad aside, we don’t have enough depth for it.

That’s the idea of playing in Europe. TV money gives you ????????? to spend on quality players.

And thus the rich/poor gap grows larger.

Lovely business, football. :rolleyes:

gj, bbc

haha

Also, Southend are down. Every game is must win, really, and dropping points against Barnsley might as well be a nail in the coffin.

Tbh though, successive promotions aren’t really going to much for a team in the long run D:

And thus the rich/poor gap grows larger.

Lovely business, football. :rolleyes:

to succeed in europe, stay up in the premiership and get anywhere in the cups pompey will need to buy a whole new reserve team, not to mention the players we already need (a couple more defenders, 20-goal striker). it’s just not worth it this season. we should be cementing ourselves at the top ready to challenge in 2007-08.

also! back in the uefa cup spots, this is excellent news

oh and man utd look to be winning the title which is good

here’s hoping bolton muck up their uefa cup challenge, though. pompey could use a boost with everton and arsenal still to play.

also arsenal are playing really badly lately, which is odd given the quality of their side.

CHELSEA IN THE DRIVING SEAT, ONE UP FROM…. OH WAIT HERE’S DAN AGGER!!!!!

LIVERPOOL LEAD!!!! DAN AGGER, I COULD KISS YOUR FEET!!!!

CHELSEA PUSH, BUT LIVERPOOL ARE STILL BY FAR THE STRONGER TEAM

LOOKS LIKE WE’RE HEADING FOR THE DREADED EXTRA TIME. . . HANG ON, CECH FUMBLES…KUYT!!!!

2-0!!!!

…HANG ON

BUT NO!!! THE LINESMAN HAS GOT A BLUE SIEMENS SHIRT ON AND HAS DENIED A CLEAR GOAL IN THE CLOSING STAGES!! WHAT A SILLY SILLY MAN!!!

IT’S AGONISING WATCHING TWO TEAMS TRUDGE MUDANELY THROUGH THE RIGGERS OF EXTRA TIME

AND WE ARE GOING TO A PENALTY SHOOT OUT!!! OH NO!!!!

BUT WAIT….CHELSEA ARE AWFUL!!! CHELSEA ARE AWFUL!!!

DIRK CAN FINALLY HAVE THE LAST LAUGH!!!!

YES!!!!!!

AND IT’S LIVERPOOL AGAIN!!!!!!

ALL THE TALK, ALL THE MIND GAMES!! AND YET NO, MR MOURINHO, AND YET NO!!!!!

THE ANFIELD ROAR HAS ONCE AGAIN SHONE ON ANOTHER GLORIOUS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LIVERPOOL WIN, AND ON TO ATHENS!!!!

CRY ME A RIVER

man u really really need to get their act together 🙁

what went on there

Yet it is Ferguson’s apparent support for Milan in Athens on May 23 that is bound to raise the most hackles.

Having previously been reluctant to add fuel to the fire that forever burns between Manchester and Liverpool, the ManYoo boss has dismissed the Reds’ hopes of registering a sixth European Cup triumph.

"I’d bet for sure that Milan will win the Champions League. I’m absolutely certain of it," he told The Sun. "I told their manager Carlo Ancelotti at the end of our semi-final that there is no way he cannot win it now."

Ferguson even plans to drink to Milan’s success in two weeks’ time.

"Carlo gave me a magnificent bottle of wine. But I immediately told him there is no point in giving such a wonderful gift if he then fails in the final.

"In fact, I told him I would only drink his wine once I see him lifting the Champions Cup."

Disgraced myself though, shrieked and ran away everytime the ball got near in case I got pummelled by da pros. They have meaty legs, I wouldn’t half snap in two!

Mossy: I work at a school, and Portsmouth FC always do visits to the local schools at the end of term as a little treat, so to speak (never the whole squad, so nothing that spectacular). They taught the kids a load of new Pompey Chimes, too. Pretty decent of them! School paid a fair penny, though. =/

Mossy: I work at a school, and Portsmouth FC always do visits to the local schools at the end of term as a little treat, so to speak (never the whole squad, so nothing that spectacular). They taught the kids a load of new Pompey Chimes, too. Pretty decent of them! School paid a fair penny, though. =/
matty taylor!!! that is awesome

in other pompey news – looks like we’re getting muntari and distin. quality players.

I worked with a guy named Richard Hughes. No relation though.

All Pompey need now is a quality striker and they’re sorted.

they played milan off the park for most of it, it’s a bit shit really

FA Cup was a shocker as well.

Southend relegated.

GONNA START CHEERING ON ANTHONY HAMILTON

F1 4 lyfe, yo.

I said no, but I’ve forwarded his address on to Steven Gerrard… His car’s not going to have any tyres tomorrow.

Lewis drives real fast.

Also, the national cup final was a total letdown.

Blackpool in their highest position since i’ve been watching them.

It makes me smile like that cat from Cheshire.

and blackpool is good news too, be interesting to see how they get on in division 1

;-;!!!

(also posting cos mossy is on)

(also: hello Duo)

it is all kinds of awesome

in football news pompey could be losing all our strikers. oh well

Also: I haven’t TC, though I was listening to BSP earlier. I will perhaps see about procuring some material through less than legal channels.

it is awesome stuff

Maybe? I don’t know.

All I know is his skills are awesome and that I enjoy watching him play.

RVP is excellent man, excellent. If Thierry does leave first off I’d be all demanding Eto’o in part exchange but if that didn’t work out then it’ll be RVP and Adebayor next season probably, with Walcott slowly filling Thierry’s sizable boots or something.

RVP is excellent. Hopefully in the next world cup Netherlands will be able to win it all with Persie as top goaler. Portugal screwed them out of everything, I believe. Love that game though.

plus, i would wager he’ll be one of those who can do well in spain or italy but comes over here and does fuck all because he can’t handle the change between the latin leagues and the premier. like morientes and forlan.

also rafa GET YOUR WALLET OUT YOU CUNT

united are buying the world. it’s no time to be introduced to your first hamburgler ;-;

Also, we missed out in the race to sign titus bramble – well gutted.

Bramble for england (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgnWpCZfpC0)

fix’d

although he is pretty talented. adebayor, not so much and a lot of people would be preferable to him, i think. ;|

Y.

Rubbish.

Still. Could be worse. Watching a blank screen might be more interesting than watching the game.

I was imagining the game though.

not football-related per se but pretty lollin

Bolton managed to get Newcastle on the first game of the season, lol’in.

4 easy games. 😀

Also Portugal sub-21 aren’t playing shit, again

Hahahaha, Portuguese news takes a highly appealing stance on the issue.

It will be interesting to see us face off against Man U, can’t wait for it.

Faggot.

Come on Shrimpers, back into the Championship this season plz.

Leicester first up, Sheff United last up. Bloody hell.

And of course the scum over Christmas. Have it.

Poor kid is likely dead and you take the piss like that.

but i still found it a bit insane that they were still broadcasting whole half hour segments on sky news like a month after she went missing, because i realy don’t know if the completely insane publicity helps anything. and i don’t think anybody in the tabloids/tv stations really cares about anything other than sales etc. but i didnt mean it in an "OMG a little girl is missing and i can make fun of that on the internet am i not a riot" sort of way =/

any chance there might be a few fibbers and blaggards on the iberian peninsula? judging by their 2006 performance and nadir afonso’s latter works, it’s a fair bet.

also yah yah football

Well I’m sorry man but it’s been a tough week and you hit a nerve.

proper football that is

lol traditional brit zing

1 person of about madeleine’s age a day goes missing in this country alone. just because maddy’s parents are rich and she’s a little blonde girl doesn’t make her any more worthy of press attention, as far as i’m concerned. i’d love for her to be found tomorrow, of course i would, but as far as i’m concerned it’s not something that should be headline news. little girls go missing! and dogs bite people! there are, frankly, bigger issues in the world. this whole media hyperbole is why the people of this country are fucking terrified of everything.

True, I hear they banned the sack race from school sports days because apparently it was ‘too dangerous’.

However, this is not altogether a bad thing. Henry is basically 30, before next season kicks off he will be. ???16m, though perhaps a slight undervaluation, is good money for a player his age. Last season he scored 13 goals I think, which isn’t bad when you consider how little he was fit for. But, the fact that he wasn’t fit for such long spells is evidence that he is an aging player and I reckon you can expect him to spend long periods out again next year. More than anything though, as much as I have admired the man and he is undeniably one of the best players of all time imo, the way he has handled the whole affair has angered me. He spent most of the last month sending out hallow assurances that he would see out his career with Arsenal, so for him to leave after making those sorts of guarantees is a bit, well, dubious.

Arsenal aren’t going to suffer any marked decline as a result of his leaving either. Van Persie and Adebayor are both very good strikers, the latter perhaps not so much, and Walcott is a natural replacement for Henry even if he is a little bit shit atm. All said, if Arsenal start next season with no new signings other than Fabianski, I’d be pretty certain they’ll finish fourth again. If they want to seriously compete for the title again, they need to seriously contemplate buying some players. One defender, one winger and one striker is the way I see it right now.

fabregas is doing ok but he’s no viera, let’s be honest. and there isn’t another henry in arsenal’s ranks right now.

:ROLLINDAROLL:

You are weeping into your GCSE papers.

You were thrown out of one exam for excessive lamentation.

tc and meph for new comedy pairing on the BBC.

9 YEARS AGO A MENTALIST CALLED NICOLAS ANELKA LEFT FOR MADRID.

BUT NOW HE’S BACK AND MORE CRAZY THAN EVER

It will be a better film than Rise of the Silver Surfer anyhow.

tc and meph for new comedy pairing on the BBC.

we’d be the new…. fantastic comedy pairing

also, anelka wouldn’t replace henry by any length… you’d need 2 anelkas i imagine

then again replacing the best player to ever grace the premier division will always be a challenge

This is all a little forward I guess. Though I am certain Arsenal are interested in Anelka due to the sheer amount of papers reporting it as the case, nothing has even begun to be negotiated and we are still miles off signing any deals. Anyway, if Nicolas Anelka does return, I will fish out an old JVC jersey and be all retro about it.

=(

oh wait that’s all my games

In PES5, Eusebio is THE LIGHTNING LORD for his speed. I partner him with Cruijff and then Tostao/Maradona supporting to the left and Rooney or Schuster on the right. It is a 4 man attack really.

a deposed, asset-frozen dodgy as fuck ex thai president buys man citeh and a man worth 20 billion FUCKING QUID is linked with buying out FUCKING BIRMINGHAM CITY.

footballs a bit shite these days isnt it.

Rather delighted we’ve finally bedded down the kid with a 6 year contract, and even more so should the reported €20 million fee be accurate.

Southend has lost its Henry 🙁

2mil though. Fucking sweet for an outfit like Southend.

i know this started years ago with abramovich, and if you want to go further than that decades ago with spurs and united becoming plcs, and i know torres has claimed he wants to go back to atletico one day and he has moved for sporting reasons (which makes sense, 1 champions league and another CL final in 3 years for liverpool) but from the perspective i offer above it is a symbol of the sport’s complete transition into a business.

at least the mancs didnt get him. although that was made easier by the fact they’ve already spent 50 million this summer.

and yes i will continue bitching about the game.

Not as good looking, but it has the passion.

great laff 😀 chester shrewsbury, or even better chester wrexham. family fun

Torres started with Athletico at the age of 13, made his way up through the youth ranks, and eventually took on the reign of captain. During his time there he has played in la liga’s second division and has turned down approaches from the likes of Real Madrid & Chelsea, purely because he wanted to help his club succeed. He’s always been naturally hungry for success, so how could anyone possibly fault him for leaving after 12 year’s service without any major award to show for it?

Athletico’s inability to drive itself forward was the cause for torres moving on, not the player’s own desire to cash in. The club’s own president even admitted he was shocked that a player of torres’ quality was still at a club like that after such a period of time.

I would agree, however, that the sport has become more about business and politics than the actual game itself, but sadly I really can’t see that changing.

Torres started with Athletico at the age of 13, made his way up through the youth ranks, and eventually took on the reign of captain. During his time there he has played in la liga’s second division and has turned down approaches from the likes of Real Madrid & Chelsea, purely because he wanted to help his club succeed. He’s always been naturally hungry for success, so how could anyone possibly fault him for leaving after 12 year’s service without any major award to show for it?

Athletico’s inability to drive itself forward was the cause for torres moving on, not the player’s own desire to cash in. The club’s own president even admitted he was shocked that a player of torres’ quality was still at a club like that after such a period of time.

I would agree, however, that the sport has become more about business and politics than the actual game itself, but sadly I really can’t see that changing.

it is symbolic because of a perspective that exists with regards to the facts, not because torres categorically moved for the mullah (although that has to be a factor, and trust me im not blaming him either)

as we have both illustrated through information about torres’ career, he is an icon, a fan, the captain and therefore the model of a loyal lifelong player for atletico. then he moves to liverpool, and arrives to a wage of 90 grand a week. so from that particular perspective, the transfer can be interpreted as symbolic of that shift from sport to business.

you mention ballack and shevchenko. of course they moved for the even greater wages, but torres’ move is more poignant in terms of this symbolism because those two were already at CL participating, title winning clubs, on silly money. torres meanwhile was at a club that wasnt achieving that much, and probably on a smaller wage, as well as being that loyal homegrown kid player.

of course the situation is going to change. its going to become even more business orientated, at the top level at least.

im not taking digs at pool or torres. this is merely an observation.

as we have both illustrated through information about torres’ career, he is an icon, a fan, the captain and therefore the model of a loyal lifelong player for atletico. then he moves to liverpool, and arrives to a wage of 90 grand a week. so from that particular perspective, the transfer can be interpreted as symbolic of that shift from sport to business.

you mention ballack and shevchenko. of course they moved for the even greater wages, but torres’ move is more poignant in terms of this symbolism because those two were already at CL participating, title winning clubs, on silly money. torres meanwhile was at a club that wasnt achieving that much, and probably on a smaller wage, as well as being that loyal homegrown kid player.

of course the situation is going to change. its going to become even more business orientated, at the top level at least.

im not taking digs at pool or torres. this is merely an observation.Again, I can’t see the correlation between the increasingly businesslike nature of the sport and torres’ move, not least because he was already earning extraordinary wages with Athletico, and turned down even higher offers from other clubs. His desire to move was based on hunger for success, something he clearly wasn’t going to achieve with his boyhood club, and the fact he had always been an admirer of liverpool (which is to be taken with a certain pinch of salt, naturally)

LFC.TV: Tell me about the captain’s armband you displayed during a game against Real Sociedad last season, with You’ll Never Walk Alone written on the inside?

Torres: There is a group of my mates, about five or six of us, and we’ve all grown up supporting Liverpool. Because they are all so committed to Liverpool, they’ve had We’ll Never Walk Alone tattooed on their arms. It’s changed slightly because it’s a symbol of our friendship as well as our support for the club. Obviously I couldn’t have that tattooed on my arm playing for Atletico, but they gave me this armband as a present for my last birthday.Just one interesting question he answered.

Like I said, I agree that many of the high profile transfers that take place today are taking place purely from a business perspective, but I wouldn’t put Fernando’s move into that category. The fact he arrived at liverpool on 90 grand is more a factor of the inflated wages that exist for all professional footballers. Sure, he could have signed on for 50 grand a week, but when the club are already paying the likes of jamie carragher (scouse through and through) 100 grand a week, and stevie g somewhere in the region of 120 grand a week, it really wouldn’t have been on par with the typical earnings of the club’s most valued players.

Just one interesting question he answered.

Like I said, I agree that many of the high profile transfers that take place today are taking place purely from a business perspective, but I wouldn’t put Fernando’s move into that category. The fact he arrived at liverpool on 90 grand is more a factor of the inflated wages that exist for all professional footballers. Sure, he could have signed on for 50 grand a week, but when the club are already paying the likes of jamie carragher (scouse through and through) 100 grand a week, and stevie g somewhere in the region of 120 grand a week, it really wouldn’t have been on par with the typical earnings of the club’s most valued players.

i get the feeling you think i am singling out the player for criticism and trying to imply that he went solely for the money, which i am clearly not. the very fact that he is walking onto 90 grand a week after leaving his boyhood club shows the business aspect of the game, regardless of astronomical wage structures at liverpool or a lack of ambition on atletico’s part or torres’ intentions and affection for his old club or him turning down other big clubs.

the fact is, he left his boyhood club, and he is now earning 90 fucking grand A WEEK. i know you are going to be defensive as an lfc fan and that’s fair enough but be objective for a second. i am not fucking criticising him for it either; if i had talent and was sought after then i’d jump at it too. he clearly has some integrity but then chose ambition over loyalty as all players do nowadays due to the never-so-lucrative-as-this opportunities available. matt le tissier and alan shearer never won fuck all but stayed with their clubs. just a comparison.

i think voronin may be the star signing, as he’s been brought in under the shadow of the torres deal. quality talent, imo.

also, leto and lucas may prove some worth in the long run as well.

the fact is, he left his boyhood club, and he is now earning 90 fucking grand A WEEK. i know you are going to be defensive as an lfc fan and that’s fair enough but be objective for a second. i am not fucking criticising him for it either; if i had talent and was sought after then i’d jump at it too. He was earning 103 thousand a week with Athletico, just for the record.

You seem to be misunderstaning me, i’m not attacking you, i’m merley disagreeing with what you’re saying. I don’t think i’m being defensive really. Just because i’m a liverpool fan doesn’t mean I can’t base an informed, unbiased opinion. I just feel that of all the transfer deals that take place, this one in particular could hardly be viewed as typical of the increasing businesslike nature of the sport.

he clearly has some integrity but then chose ambition over loyalty as all players do nowadays due to the never-so-lucrative-as-this opportunities available. matt le tissier and alan shearer never won fuck all but stayed with their clubs. just a comparison.Blind loyalty is hardly something to aspire to though, to be fair. Had he remained with Athletico, he may well have spent his whole career without a reward to his name. Don’t forget, he himself has something to prove, and wants to be regarded as a true great in the sport, something he could only accomplish with another team.

fear that he’ll be the next morientes or forlan is what’s stopping me from being all jubilant and the like.

i think voronin may be the star signing, as he’s been brought in under the shadow of the torres deal. quality talent, imo.

also, leto and lucas may prove some worth in the long run as well.I’m hoping his youth and experience being a lone striker will give him a bit of an edge, should be interesting though.

Agree with voronin, he seems to have a good eye for a shot, built pretty well, and has a little bit of pace to him. I think the best thing about both of these guys is that it will let kuyt do what he was meant to do, poach around the box for goals. He could easily be our 20+ goal a season striker we need.

Haven’t seen much of leto tbh, but lucas looks a tidy little kid – just hopes he takes to the premiership well.

i think voronin may be the star signing, as he’s been brought in under the shadow of the torres deal. quality talent, imo.

also, leto and lucas may prove some worth in the long run as well.

he might need time to settle in. voronin might be more suited to the harsher weather being a ukrainian; he’s not the best forward around though.

rafa is turning pool into a right latin club, youth up. selling people like warnock and that and bringing in the latin quater

Not at all.

He was earning 103 thousand a week with Athletico, just for the record.

You seem to be misunderstaning me, i’m not attacking you, i’m merley disagreeing with what you’re saying. I don’t think i’m being defensive really. Just because i’m a liverpool fan doesn’t mean I can’t base an informed, unbiased opinion. I just feel that of all the transfer deals that take place, this one in particular could hardly be viewed as typical of the increasing businesslike nature of the sport.

Blind loyalty is hardly something to aspire to though, to be fair. Had he remained with Athletico, he may well have spent his whole career without a reward to his name. Don’t forget, he himself has something to prove, and wants to be regarded as a true great in the sport, something he could only accomplish with another team.

I’m hoping his youth and experience being a lone striker will give him a bit of an edge, should be interesting though.

Agree with voronin, he seems to have a good eye for a shot, built pretty well, and has a little bit of pace to him. I think the best thing about both of these guys is that it will let kuyt do what he was meant to do, poach around the box for goals. He could easily be our 20+ goal a season striker we need.

Haven’t seen much of leto tbh, but lucas looks a tidy little kid – just hopes he takes to the premiership well.

103 thousand? euros or quid? if quid then fuck me, that does put a dent in my argument.

and i beg to differ, anelka will never be revered by a whole city or region of people like shearer or le tiss or maldini or dario gradi (is he?? lol) or whoever, and loyalty can be admirable because it’s more of a challenge to stick with your club and do the best you can for them as opposed to fucking off to a big club where it will be easier to make your name bigger and win more.

and dont worry, i dont think you’re attacking me. as far as conversations on this forum go, this is too civilised 😛

LFC.TV: Is it right he has taken a pay cut to come here?

Rafa: Yes, it’s true. He had a good contract at Atletico Madrid because he was the icon of the team, the captain, and he’d been there for many years. He was the top scorer. It’s difficult to move a player like him, but he decided to come and he reduced his wages. When you talk about him, everything is positive in terms of his commitment for us.

and i beg to differ, anelka will never be revered by a whole city or region of people like shearer or le tiss or maldini or dario gradi (is he?? lol) or whoever, and loyalty can be admirable because it’s more of a challenge to stick with your club and do the best you can for them as opposed to fucking off to a big club where it will be easier to make your name bigger and win more.I suppose it all depends on how you measure someone’s success. In terms of silverware, shearer may not technically be classed a ‘success’, in the literal sense of the word, but I’d still consider him to be one of the best strikers the premiership has seen.

I agree through, in an ideal world – sure, the sport as a whole would benefit from having more players with shearer’s level of commitment and loyalty, but at the same time I wouldn’t fault torres’ either, as he gave nearly 12 years service to athletico, more than most players would ever play at one club.

I suppose it all depends on how you measure someone’s success. In terms of silverware, shearer may not technically be classed a ‘success’, in the literal sense of the word, but I’d still consider him to be one of the best strikers the premiership has seen.

I agree through, in an ideal world – sure, the sport as a whole would benefit from having more players with shearer’s level of commitment and loyalty, but at the same time I wouldn’t fault torres’ either, as he gave nearly 12 years service to athletico, more than most players would ever play at one club.

well, kudos to the fucker then. and yes, an ideal world witnesses such loyalty in profession. instead the capitalist ideal and the exploitative nature of the businesses and the vast investment and return perpetuates a mercenary climate in football.

tevez off to united????? i thought the yanks had taken out big fuck off loans to buy the club. where is all this money coming from??

chelsea signing alex and malouda, too. they will be very strong again next year, and perhaps show more flair too. this coming season will be very interesting

tevez to man u is a distinct probability, wouldn’t be surprised at taht at all tbh

mate who’s a pompey fan told me something funny – fratton park <—> krap nottarf 😛

avram grant, some yid mate of romans, joins chelsea – and goes onto the board too. what a surprise.

toddy’s been a hero for us ever since he got 26 goals the season we went up, but he’s been injured for ages… i guess it was always going to happen. but we still need a goalscorer, seems stupid to sell a striker whichever way you put it.

just a question but whats with all the random, rubbish africans pompey get (apart from lua lua)? i mean the only reason benjani mwuaudfdbdh whatever stayed is because he was their record signing.

i might go see QPR play next season. my life is getting quite intense and serious right now and ill need something to laugh at

but benjani’s one of our best strikers, in terms of work rate and what he does apart from goalscoring, he just cannot put the ball in the net, it’s quite upsetting all round 🙁

i follow qpr (my mum supports them) ! they might actually do alright next year, if they’re lucky… or just decide not to be shit again eh

work rate is always appreciated but managers and owners increasingly value the end product with all that hinges on every single goal nowadays

Also, nugent to pompey was a steal. I’d have liked to see him at sunderland personally, but it was a tidy bit of business by the oul grafter redknapp. I’m sure he’ll be a hit.

i guess that’s it for kanu, though, unless he signs quick he won’t have a spot left at pompey next year. nugent took his bloody time though, not awfully sure about his commitment – particularly as he looks like he’ll up and move to everton first chance he gets.

edit: bloody hell, utaka joined us over man u! that’s got to be good

problem solved now.

Rather pleased with the signings of yossi and babel, the latter in particular – he looks quite the prospect given his young age.

Also, nugent to pompey was a steal. I’d have liked to see him at sunderland personally, but it was a tidy bit of business by the oul grafter redknapp. I’m sure he’ll be a hit.

i don’t think either moves are confirmed yet?… babel’s isnt, anyway. but yeah, rafa wanted a winger. now he has one with premiership experience, and potentially one of the best young ones in europe.

Ryan Babel is great, Arsenal are just absolute spastics for not making a firm bid for him. Not a big fan of Benayoun, tbh.

considering arsenal’s proficiency of nicking THE best talent in europe over anyone else, and their history with great dutch players signing, this is a big loss if liverpool pull it off

perhaps they know something we dont about babel. personally, i think it’s more likely the speculation over wenger’s future following henry’s and dein’s departures has really shaken things up at the club. ljungberg is talking about fiorentina now.

typical, you wait ages for a striker and two come along at once

i guess that’s it for kanu, though, unless he signs quick he won’t have a spot left at pompey next year. nugent took his bloody time though, not awfully sure about his commitment – particularly as he looks like he’ll up and move to everton first chance he gets.

edit: bloody hell, utaka joined us over man u! that’s got to be good

kanu already wanted a return to ajax once last season, before staying. he’ll probably leave now, yes, although im sure harry said he wants kanu to stay as well

perhaps because he’ll be trying to get into a front line boasting tevez, rooney, saha, smith, solskjaer and rossi? or perhaps he saw pompey fuck united up last season =D

Newcastle United, Portsmouth and Rangers are the three clubs involved in the raids. "

WELL THAT’S UNSURPRISING

Speaking of the Toon: Newcastle 2 Juventus 0

the newcastle situation is similar to west ham and the argentine transfers with MSI – old club employees or owners who have now left.

this coming season is going to be interesting at the top.

football is due a recession. i just hope it comes sooner rather than later

Imagine how much the tax-man’s getting…

Sooner for reasons we already talked about in secret MSN sessions.

tax will be at least 40 % right? or am i just tripping.

but he’ll probably find ways of avoiding it all. alas.

Nope, in my view, it is precisely because of all the investment that the Premier League will inevitably have to enter a cooldown period very soon. 9 Premiership clubs have foreign owners now, after Abramovich started the trend in 2003 with Chelsea. Add Arsenal by virtue of being one of the big four and that makes 10. All 10 of these clubs are chasing after 4 spots, 4 very very secure spots. Maybe Tottenham might be able to fight it out with Arsenal for fourth this season, I doubt it, but maybe. But then, beyond Tottenham, none of the rest are in with a real chance of cracking the top four this year, and probably any subsequent years in the foreseeable future. Given the level of investment these billionaires are pumping in, tens of millions of pounds in the cases of West Ham, Man City and Pompey, they don’t want to wait five seasons while they consolidate themselves in mid-table, they want quick returns fast. When that doesn’t happen, I can see the owners selling off very quickly and for significantly less than they paid in the first place.

abramovichs inception with the help of dickhead bates opened the possibility of major investment, which is now unfolding to an extent i never thought would happen. but the likes of al fayed and whatshisname over at mk dons started what was a likelihood as soon as clubs became plcs. the FA never updated their laws, league 1 and the european cup got bought out, tv companies got clued up and got cut in, G14 got formed and voila.

kroenke for the win joke

i think i might start supporting QPR. i am not being serious.

yeah topcat. imagine the lawyers and personal advisors and financial assistants at his disposal. most top level footballers are now businessmen anyway. robbie fowlers owns loads of houses in cheshire – you wouldnt know it if you lived in one apparently. and riise’s hotel business failed LOL

Sunderland, Free points to any team who play ’em, that’s what the score with those mackem gits is. Although I am heavily Biased Being from the other riverside.

also jumpers for goalposts etc

We’ll probably struggle for the first ten games, have a corking mid-season, and then peter out to third or fourth. You know, as usual.

As for Arsenal, I think the pressure’s been lifted weith the majority of the media writing them off before a ball has been kicked. Losing the one player everyone talks about isn’t always a bad thing. Rooney when he left Everton for example.

Plus I seem to remember Man United been written off after they got rid of four or five top stars to replace them with kids. Expect Arsenal to take a few people by suprise.

The premiership? United will walk it.

I think we have a great chance of regaining the Prem, Tevez is going to imminently sign a 2 year loan deal with Man U for about ???4.5 million each year, and once that’s finished, sign a 3 year contract. Anderson, Nani and Hargreaves will all have a fairly good season, but it might take some time for Anderson and Nani to settle. When they do, Anderson will be as good as Ronaldinho in 3-4 years time, and Nani will blossom in about 3 years time IMO.

I think the other signings that have been made by the top 4 teams have been average, Chelsea have made a great signing in Malouda, but Ben Haim and Sidwell will prove to be largely unneeded. Pizarro may struggle to adapt to the Prems pace, but he will probably bag a few more goals than Shevchenko did.

Liverpool have signed roughly the 6041st Spanish player for their club in Fernando Torres, who isn’t worth over ???20 million. Athletico Madrid fans say that he won’t get 20 goals a season because he’s not in that mould. Babel is a good player, although he won’t be as good as Henry, despite what Babel himself says. Benayoun is just looking for better wages.

Arsenal have signed players I don’t know, so I have no opinion of them.

Anyway, I agree with Minty about Arsenal, a lot of pessimism surrounding them since the sale of Henry but I think the squad has been pretty well strengthened, not weakened at all. Sold Ljunberg which is great, big wage for a very poor player in the last few seasons, got rid of that flop Reyes, for 6m no less, who was a very talented young lad but ultimately couldn’t adapt to life in England. As for Henry, I’ve said what I thought of his transfer on a number of occasions. He is a player who will almost certainly be plagued by injury from now until the end of his career and although still brilliant when on the field- I recall his goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup and another against Newcastle in the Premiership as being amongst his best- his brilliance is inevitably declining. Last season van Persie scored more than Henry and I reckon that he along with da Silva will make up Arsenal’s attack next season (I know critics talk about Adebayor’s skill a lot, but he didn’t really score or do very much last year). Look out for Niklas Bendtner too, the very fact Wenger didn’t sell him to Birmingham last season says a lot and he’s had an excellent pre-season. We kept Flamini which is excellent, he is a sort of underrated talent imo, extremely versatile and extremely competent in awkward positions, such as playing left back for 6 months when Cole and Clichy were out during the run to the Champions League final. Lehmann stayed too, and that looked as though it was in the balance at the start of the transfer window. Regardless of temperament issues, he is the second best goalie in the Premiership after Petr Cech. In all, I don’t reckon Arsenal will finish any higher than fourth this season but what do you expect? All of the other big clubs have spent tens of millions on new signings, whereas Arsenal have yet again refused to pay inflated prices for players and stuck with youth, Frank Ribery’s sale to Munich sort of exemplifying this. Not that I wouldn’t like Arsenal to sign some of the guys that the other teams have, but the money United paid fro Nani and Anderson was ridiculous and Torres’ fee was at least a bit too high as well. On the other hand, I don’t see them finishing any lower than fourth either. Tottenham, I feel, are the only team outside the top 4 with any realistic chance of breaking into it but they have a huge problem- one of the best offences in Europe partnered with one of the weakest defences in the Premiership. Paul Robinson is one of the worst goalkeepers in the Premiership but people don’t seem to realise it, David James is vastly superior and ought to be England number 1. All said, if Arsenal don’t ultimately finish fourth, I reckon they’ll be finishing higher than it rather than lower.

EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but Sparta Prague is a very, very tough team to have to play for Champions League qualification. If Arsenal start the season slow and gather momentum or if they are just outright complacent, they aren’t going to make the group stages. Celtic got Spartak Moscow didn’t they? I reckon Celtic will lose, it takes a special team to go to Moscow and get a result. Although, that’s the case during the tournament proper, during the winter, but Russia enjoys very nice summers, so maybe that will not be a factor at all.

well, i still technically follow chelsea, but i dont pay any money towards their cause, or wear any of the new shirts (ive got my old zola shirt, always proud to wear that)

Newcastle, beat Juventus… THEY BEAT JUVENTUS. wtf?
So far it seems Newcastle’s going to do well this season as good as things so far are looking. Interesting.

Sunderland, Free points to any team who play ’em, that’s what the score with those mackem gits is. Although I am heavily Biased Being from the other riverside.

newcastle have a very good squad of internationals now, and allardyce is a fat prick, but you cant fault his ability as a manager. he is very objective, motivationally adept and imposing and he gets results. i think he made a mistake selling parker though

West Ham and Man City will be the most entertaining opener, I shouldn’t wonder. What with all the new talent they’re both boasting.

We’ll probably struggle for the first ten games, have a corking mid-season, and then peter out to third or fourth. You know, as usual.

As for Arsenal, I think the pressure’s been lifted weith the majority of the media writing them off before a ball has been kicked. Losing the one player everyone talks about isn’t always a bad thing. Rooney when he left Everton for example.

Plus I seem to remember Man United been written off after they got rid of four or five top stars to replace them with kids. Expect Arsenal to take a few people by suprise.

The premiership? United will walk it.

united look the most likely team to win it; their signings have been improvements over their sales, simply put. they were excellent last year and as such its obvious to expect better.

I’m a Man U fan, and I’m happy to say I’ve been to a few games, rather than just supporting the club for silverware. I have a plaque on my wall, with a ticket from the Man U A.S Roma game back in April when we won 7-1, and various pics from the game which has pride of place above my bed on the wall :D. Alas, one of the heroes from that game, Alan Smith, has now left to join Newcastle for ???6 million, I’ll miss him.

I think we have a great chance of regaining the Prem, Tevez is going to imminently sign a 2 year loan deal with Man U for about ???4.5 million each year, and once that’s finished, sign a 3 year contract. Anderson, Nani and Hargreaves will all have a fairly good season, but it might take some time for Anderson and Nani to settle. When they do, Anderson will be as good as Ronaldinho in 3-4 years time, and Nani will blossom in about 3 years time IMO.

I think the other signings that have been made by the top 4 teams have been average, Chelsea have made a great signing in Malouda, but Ben Haim and Sidwell will prove to be largely unneeded. Pizarro may struggle to adapt to the Prems pace, but he will probably bag a few more goals than Shevchenko did.

Liverpool have signed roughly the 6041st Spanish player for their club in Fernando Torres, who isn’t worth over ???20 million. Athletico Madrid fans say that he won’t get 20 goals a season because he’s not in that mould. Babel is a good player, although he won’t be as good as Henry, despite what Babel himself says. Benayoun is just looking for better wages.

Arsenal have signed players I don’t know, so I have no opinion of them.

that game against roma was an example of united at their best, but also roma at their worst. i followed roma last season and they beat inter 6 2 in the cup final and finished second, as well as knocking lyon out of the CL before facing united (and beating united in the first leg) their fans are a bunch of wankers though.

There has to be a sort of reason as to why he sold Parker.

Anyway, I agree with Minty about Arsenal, a lot of pessimism surrounding them since the sale of Henry but I think the squad has been pretty well strengthened, not weakened at all. Sold Ljunberg which is great, big wage for a very poor player in the last few seasons, got rid of that flop Reyes, for 6m no less, who was a very talented young lad but ultimately couldn’t adapt to life in England. As for Henry, I’ve said what I thought of his transfer on a number of occasions. He is a player who will almost certainly be plagued by injury from now until the end of his career and although still brilliant when on the field- I recall his goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup and another against Newcastle in the Premiership as being amongst his best- his brilliance is inevitably declining. Last season van Persie scored more than Henry and I reckon that he along with da Silva will make up Arsenal’s attack next season (I know critics talk about Adebayor’s skill a lot, but he didn’t really score or do very much last year). Look out for Niklas Bendtner too, the very fact Wenger didn’t sell him to Birmingham last season says a lot and he’s had an excellent pre-season. We kept Flamini which is excellent, he is a sort of underrated talent imo, extremely versatile and extremely competent in awkward positions, such as playing left back for 6 months when Cole and Clichy were out during the run to the Champions League final. Lehmann stayed too, and that looked as though it was in the balance at the start of the transfer window. Regardless of temperament issues, he is the second best goalie in the Premiership after Petr Cech. In all, I don’t reckon Arsenal will finish any higher than fourth this season but what do you expect? All of the other big clubs have spent tens of millions on new signings, whereas Arsenal have yet again refused to pay inflated prices for players and stuck with youth, Frank Ribery’s sale to Munich sort of exemplifying this. Not that I wouldn’t like Arsenal to sign some of the guys that the other teams have, but the money United paid fro Nani and Anderson was ridiculous and Torres’ fee was at least a bit too high as well. On the other hand, I don’t see them finishing any lower than fourth either. Tottenham, I feel, are the only team outside the top 4 with any realistic chance of breaking into it but they have a huge problem- one of the best offences in Europe partnered with one of the weakest defences in the Premiership. Paul Robinson is one of the worst goalkeepers in the Premiership but people don’t seem to realise it, David James is vastly superior and ought to be England number 1. All said, if Arsenal don’t ultimately finish fourth, I reckon they’ll be finishing higher than it rather than lower.

EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but Sparta Prague is a very, very tough team to have to play for Champions League qualification. If Arsenal start the season slow and gather momentum or if they are just outright complacent, they aren’t going to make the group stages. Celtic got Spartak Moscow didn’t they? I reckon Celtic will lose, it takes a special team to go to Moscow and get a result. Although, that’s the case during the tournament proper, during the winter, but Russia enjoys very nice summers, so maybe that will not be a factor at all.

hey we got a work permit for alex too, who wants to join us – when that’s wrapped up we’ll have a hell of a defender, perhaps a replacement for gallas. ben haim can fuck off as far as im concerned; as far as i know we signed him because he scored against us a few times. we signed jes hogh for the same reason all those years ago. (ok so that’s bollocks but he’s not a top class defender, he’s utter utility.)

i dont get the hatred for robinson, so he punches the ball sometimes and isnt good with divots. james is famous for his fair share of mistakes too; i think robinson isnt the best keeper but has enough talent to iron out his performances and pull of the consistency and the gasp look at that saves. anyway, shay given and van der sar deserve a look in, and you cant forget reina, who is uber confident with penalties and looks very athletic.

rosicky came from sparta.

Alot of Newcastle fans think it was a mistake to sell Parker.
Sam Allardyce is the kind of prick we need in charge, he knows what he’s doing too though. Roeder’s problem was that he was too "nice" He wasn’t at all disciplinary towards players. A very good manager but his polite and "moral" style of managing was his downfall there. A club where strictness isn’t needed and where his attitude and ways of managing is where he belongs.

There has to be a sort of reason as to why he sold Parker.

roeder also said some stupid things (failure ingrained at newcastle haha) you’re right about his nice attitude, he didnt have much in the way of bollocks.

i wouldnt mind going to st james and lapping up the geordie atmosphere, it seems pretty special. id fucking love to be there to see west ham play, watch the stick bowyer and dyer will get haha, i guess parker will get a few cheers though, he’s a pro wherever he goes, all the chels lot i know including me feel he was hard done by getting dumped by the club because he was always 100% effort, didnt do his career any harm going to newcastle though.

Statistically speaking, Paul Robinson was the second worst player in the Premiership last season, based on the Fink Tank’s rather thorough analysis. THAT IS THE ROOT OF MAH DISLIKE.

ive seen the fink tank website, and had a look at the rankings; pretty damning stuff.

James

Distin Campbell Primus

Lauren Taylor

Muntari Krancjar
Mendes

Utaka Benjani

it removes options on the wing, but lauren and taylor are both fairly adapt at running from defence to attack (taylor played that exact position in 2003) and it gives us a lot of strength in the centre. it also removes a lot of selection worries!

Signed U-21 Spanish Left Back Enrique Sanchez

GO ON YOU SHRIMPERS!

west ham are a right cunt of a club right now; pricks like neill and bowyer and bellamy and a cosmo selection of fashionable and talented players playing for a club run by a consortium;

who succeeded a previous board that did well in getting promoted back to the premiership and getting into europe no less that season with a young team, and fucked it up by getting mascherano and tevez in even though everyone who knows anything about football knows their rights are/were (whats the deal with them now?) owned by a company shadier then the dark side of the moon. they unbalanced the team, much like ballack and shevchenko did at chelsea, and lampard does by being untouchable but cynical and lazy at times, and then the club got bought out, perhaps as a way to escape the consequences of such dodginess when joorabchain didnt buy west ham himself, and now the dyer and tevez ‘sagas’ (i hate the way the media calls a transfer that doesnt go smoothly these days a saga, or a player that scores a hattrick or wins an important match a legend regardless of anything else he’s done or bad form in the past or whatever nowadays, tabloid trash) has further sullied their good name. their fans are cunts anyway.

adam, nugent is unproven in the prem. i reckon he’ll do a job for us but, at the same time, he could end up like ricardo fuller… seems good, does well in division 1, but can’t make the step up. hopefully i’ll be proven wrong and he’ll score 20 a season and play in the euros next year, but you never know.

Go with the Englishman. That’s what I say!

Hey, we’re arguing over good players for a change. Instead of Lee Bradbury.

him and rory "injury" allen

At home.

/cut

great opening weekend, actually. i loled at lehmann

referees are IN MY POCKET!

free kick, sir. FREE KICK I SAY!

i can also put it in from 30 YARDS!

GOAL!!!!

Also, I am not sure if selling Lua Lua is a good or bad thing. I am guessing his opportunities will be limited now we’ve got Nugent and Utaka, but meh.

celtic won well. derby pompey was entertaining; gutted for southend :P; gerrard got a dubious pen against sheffield last seasons opener too; chopra did the best he could have done, and celebrated like a mackem when it worked.

sookie, do you know what the deal is with zurawski? he doesnt seem to be on the team sheet much anymore

also check everton out. dark horses.

EDIT – seen all the highlights barring united pompey (get in pompey)

robinson wasnt great. yidos pretty shit so far. everton look good and underappreciated for their form. reading were excellent and their fans were in good voice and chelseas defence – what a shambles. it will be awesome when alex and terry link up; ive always hated carvalho and cole and they were shocking today, bridge should be in the first team too, haim and ferreira werent much better. pizarro was a snidey cunt with his rolling antics to get that player sent off. 2 classy goals and some astute tactics seperate the teams, as chelsea are efficient at doing. wigan v boro shocking attendance, 14000; those 2, bolton and fulham are riddled with mercenaries and shite diving posers no better then those that litter chelseas squad, the only difference being footballing quality, which is superior at the bridge. of course you have warriors and homegrowns and admirable players like mcbride, downing, heskey (nice bloke, not a good player obviously) niemi and so forth but the minority cant save them. birmingham seem to have a pretty rabid fanbase, and they should stay up, along with sunderland. the ref missed two blatant decisions in that match that a top level referee really shouldnt miss.

even when it’s just complaining i love the premiership

also, benjani’s scored 2 in 2 games now. he might actually reach double figures this year, this is unheard of. ronaldo was a bit of a twat though

mossy

do you have cm 01/02 yet 🙁

i swear i downloaded it though i may have lost it when laptop got broked, will check this hd i have here, now, TO BE SURE.

pande bear i loled. 01/02 was brilliant, roma are the best team on it, assancao emerson aldair zago totti awesome

ALSO: Guys, we are going to get a CM01-02 FFShrine network game going hopefully, so if you have it or want to be involved you should say so. We are gonna be in division 3 and stuff, it’ll be crazy!

also, i am working at argyle tomorrow, selling … items

why was the sound muted? it doesnt seem to work for me at all :/

Also: bagsy Southend for CM 😡

Only thing that matters, mackems lost.

….

’nuff said really.

why was the sound muted? it doesnt seem to work for me at all :/

The sound isn’t working? It’s no loss man, it’s just people going like "YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" when you score, but I dunno why it isn’t working!

you are a dead man, sir

also, john terry. you should not be on the pitch! no, you should be dead in a ditch. you cunt.

hells yes

thats a shame 🙁 my family is polish, came over in the 80s, so i take an interest in polish players. i remember he did quite well in the beginning. i messaged the cunt on facebook but he never replied. do you reckon the club have quite replaced larsson then? he was a genuine legend. brought the best out of sutton too.

Rob Styles

….

’nuff said really.

yep a tit, video replays – rugby and cricket use them, so why the fuck not football, especially when there is so much money and reputation at stake for so many people?

Duo, I have tried uploading it twice AND TWICE IT FUCKED UP. Working on it right now and it’s at 70% so another 20 minutes or so and it’ll be done.

ALSO: Guys, we are going to get a CM01-02 FFShrine network game going hopefully, so if you have it or want to be involved you should say so. We are gonna be in division 3 and stuff, it’ll be crazy!

my 01/02 dont work no more 🙁 i tried to upload it but the disc is fucked

pompey won, decent game. utaka’s goal was good. i spent today watching plymouth vs ipswich, having sold lottery tickets. ???19.10 for an hour and a half’s work ain’t bad. wasn’t a great game and ipswich are fucking dirty bastards but i wasn’t paying so it made it all so much better.

well played sir, selling lottery at a game? ace.

hello mr styles

you are a dead man, sir

also, john terry. you should not be on the pitch! no, you should be dead in a ditch. you cunt.

‘you met my mate stanley?’

edit – tonights game; fucking shite. swp and micah richards impressed, and joe cole showed a little endeavour, but i cant believe robinson, and i cant stand lampard passing the fucking ball backwards all the time (one pass to joe cole was right behind him and left him in a heap as he tried to get it to keep the move going) and beckham showed that he is an overrated tit; about 85 % of his crosses were fucking shit. smith and crouch are completely pointless.

i know it was only a friendly, mid league games; but i feel sorry for the sods who paid and turned up, and although england will grind a win and a draw or a narrow win against yids and commies they will doubtless show the same disorganised, over the top ball laden, pragmatic approach to games that gets them to quater finals in major tournaments but doesnt ever impress or destroy the opposition.

Today – Celtic 5 Hearts 0 🙂

(Got a sore throat now ) 🙂

Today – Celtic 5 Hearts 0 🙂

(Got a sore throat now ) 🙂

yeah i saw, strachans doing alright, good squad assembled. it will take a lot to replace larsson indeed, maybe nakamura is going some way towards it?

yeah boruc is the polish number one, and he’s a quality keeper, for a time villa and arsenal wanted him, but he stayed. i think he got in trouble for inciting protestants or something too lol

zurawski replied to me on facebook, lol. not great english and pretty generic shit, but at least he bothered. he said he would want to do well for celtic and injuries have bogged him down; sort of thing people spout in post match interviews endlessly. oh well, every honeymoon must come to an end

Kwl that he responded to you – he’s been good and done well for the club in general -everyone has their ups and downs 🙂 and it must be frustrating at times not being able to talk freely to many people – Nakamura is simply amazing 🙂

As someone who is not in the least bit interested in any religion personally , and witnesses Boruc blessing himself on a regular basis – I can safely say I have never felt offended or had any adverse ill effects in any way, by Boruc blessing himself , and hereby imply anyone who does , is suffering from some sort of mental illness 🙂

Ooo and as far as Boruc goes – Rangers fans wanted him arrested because he caused them offence by blessing himself (as he always does) 🙁

As someone who is not in the least bit interested in any religion personally , and witnesses Boruc blessing himself on a regular basis – I can safely say I have never felt offended or had any adverse ill effects in any way, by Boruc blessing himself , and hereby imply anyone who does , is suffering from some sort of mental illness 🙂

not bitching or anything but i think double posting is frowned upon here.

yeah, top level footballers these days are big businessmen with plenty hanging on what they say and most have their own PR advisors, so its rare to have an interview when a player or manager actually expresses themself now. i loved micah richards being interviewed after he scored his first goal for citeh though; he was well happy and he said something like ‘yeah it was fuckin mint’ and garth crooks had to say ‘sorry micah but this is a family hour for TV audiences’ (it was on final score, not MOTD)

was that all it was, him blessing himself? the sectarian conflict between the hardline huns and bhoys brings that sort of response though. fiery shit

was that all it was, him blessing himself? the sectarian conflict between the hardline huns and bhoys brings that sort of response though. fiery shit

yip that’s all he done – The Rangers fans say his action were a deliberate attempt to wind them up :confused: – complete nonsense !!

The Bhoys only have problems with hardline huns .
The hardline huns have problems with everyone who do not think the same as them. 🙂

bizarre

–

Dyer, Solano, Bowyer, Bellamy. There’s probably more I forgot.

Inside information has told us that the Bolton manager Sammy Lee had falsely informed Anelka that they had accepted an offer from Manchester United. Our inside source goes on to tell us that Anelka was so pleased with his apparent move, that he failed to read any of the contract that Sammy Lee had given him. The title of the contract was in fact ???Transfer to Manchester United???, however, Anelka had actually signed a contract extension till 2011.

EatFootball managed to catch up with an ecstatic Sammy Lee ???Well, we finally did it! We had been planning this for months and after all of the clubs efforts it???s great to see the plan work. Now we can concentrate on winning games???.

Sammy Lee then went on to explain that Anelka is now the lowest paid player in the premiership, earning just over ???140 a week, of which 90% of his salary is now donated to the ???Belarusian Bikes for Bats??? charity. Other clauses were also sneaked into the contract, including the immediate sale of Anelka???s 14 bedroom house for club funds and the ever popular ???no win no fee??? clause.

A spokesman for Nicolas Anelka said he was ???displeased??? with his new contract.

I chuckled.

can’t believe we’ve sold GON 🙁 he’s a proper pompey legend.

yip that’s all he done – The Rangers fans say his action were a deliberate attempt to wind them up :confused: – complete nonsense !!

The Bhoys only have problems with hardline huns .
The hardline huns have problems with everyone who do not think the same as them. 🙂

fuckin bigots

West Ham’s stealing our players! :< well they have a fair share of ex magpies.

Dyer, Solano, Bowyer, Bellamy. There’s probably more I forgot.

do you honestly miss any of them (besides nobby, if i was a geordie he’d be a hero of mine)?

All of Arsenal’s goals were very well worked last night but the scoreline flattered them, they were complacent and Sparta had the chances to make a game of it if they had been able to convert on even the smallest scale. Fabrages is looking great though, three goals so far this season, and although he has always been influential as a passer and playmaker it is a fair criticism that he didn’t score enough. This season though he’s started brightly and it looks like he and Hleb might be able to emulate something of the midfield goalscoring potency provided by Ljunberg and Pires back in the day. Even Rosicky looks better this year, and last season he was absolutely terrible, MAKE NO MISTAKE.

rosicky has always been a talented midfield livewire. he scored against arsenal for sparta, i believe, back in the day.

i cant believe we sold diarra to yous. must be the frogs gallas and wenger meddling. shocking that we nurtured and developed a promising young player – then sold him to arguably our biggest rivals.

haha jester

can’t believe we’ve sold GON 🙁 he’s a proper pompey legend.

is nugent going then?

and was o neil a youth product? or is that taylor? and i believe he went to boro??? whats the fuckin sense in that. oh well

by the way, who watched cagliari juventus today?? i was fucking appalled. both teams are a bunch of cheating fucking cunts, diving and rolling around like fairies, the referee was on smack – probably due to his second, hushed up payroll – and the crossing made the fucking league 1 highlights i watched look good. absolutely shocking.

but, jesus, we were shit today.

That goal is actually spectacular, he cuts into the box at lightning speed and from a terrible angle just bangs it in. But yeah, Rosicky is a really good player, but for most of last season he didn’t demonstrate that. Hopefully it was just because he hadn’t settled, because he has started this term brightly.

The Bhoys only have problems with hardline huns .
The hardline huns have problems with everyone who do not think the same as them. 🙂

and the celtic fans didn’t overreact at all when gascoigne played the flute a few years back, did they? six of one, half a dozen of the other in glasgow. it’s outrageously dumb.

That goal is actually spectacular, he cuts into the box at lightning speed and from a terrible angle just bangs it in.

quick thinking granted, but terrible defending as well.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/table/default.stm

remember where you were, gentlemen.

but, jesus, we were shit today.

ah millwall, bastion of shit

Parker and Nobby are a miss. They are excellent players and Nobby is pretty much a saint considering how much he’s done for Newcastle..

parker is the right sort of player who works his arse off. he fucked off to ham too didnt he. halkf the fucking prem is mercenary united now,

and the celtic fans didn’t overreact at all when gascoigne played the flute a few years back, did they? six of one, half a dozen of the other in glasgow. it’s outrageously dumb.

quick thinking granted, but terrible defending as well.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/table/default.stm

remember where you were, gentlemen.

all hardliners and the yobbo contignent who start rows at matches and after are cunts, misguided and as far as im aware they scare some fans away.

liverpool have been the best team this season, followed closely by everton.

as well as all that, he was a sevilla youth product, and i think involved in plenty of community work, which marks him out as a better bloke then most footballers.

a shame, RIP to the lad

YES!!!!!!! FUCKING GET IN!!!!!! so the pig fucker maniche scores and then faggot fairy ronaldo puts the cunts ahead – but we equalise minutes from time, and deny them a chance to close the gap at the top of group a! now for those racist serbian inbreds and the fucking eskimos to slip up, and we could draw against them both and finish top. poland have won the olympics and been in 3 finals and come third in the world cup twice, and gregorz lato won the golden boot, but we’ve never even qualified for the euros we’re hosting with the ukraine in 2012. this is our best chance now! POLSKA POLSKA

Ehh???
Boruc (who is Polish) ,only blessed himself (as he is religious), and is something he always does !! I did not think doing so was a crime 🙁 :confused: :confused:
I am not aware of any religion , requiring the "worshipper" to play the flute as part of their believes , and certainly don’t think it is practised in any churches !!!
Gasgoignes’ "stunt" was a blatant reference of support to a minority of people who consider it acceptable to be, or use derogative actions/terms to insult and degrade anyone with an Irish or Catholic background!! – This "Minty" mate – is called Racism !!!!!!

I find your "comparison" very insulting and disturbing 🙁 🙁 🙁
And I’m slightly concerned that you can not tell the difference !! 😡

Just for reference sake :- I’m am neither Irish or Catholic, and have great experience from both sets of fans.
I have found the majority of Rangers Fans to be venomous , in and outside of football.
I’m just not a racist , bigot , etc ..,and deeply despise anyone (whether they be Rangers or Celtic fans) who show these traits !!!

And I really don’t find it "dumb" for the Celtic supporters to voice their concerns over the hardcore views held by most Rangers supporters.
Celtic supporters refuse to be bullied by these "people"
This is where the "conflict" from the clubs comes from!!

haha. what.

haha. what.

lol, most pointless team ever, considering the fact that monaco is basically a rich persons playground. the club side is supported by businessmen mainly. pavel nedved is a fan

The only thing outrageouslly dumb here is you!!
Gascoine mimicked an orange order flute band member. The orange order exists solely as an anti catholic sectarian organisation who have threatened to take up an armed struggle if Ireland is united as one nation again.

Boruc was simply blessing himself as many Catholic and indeed Orthodox players do.
As for the 2 sides of the same coin,- a pathetic attempt at a retort by an ill educated fool. Try actually talking about a subject that you have first hand information of in future, and please refrain from religious content here as it is a personal issue and not a football related one. :notgood: :notgood:

That said, I wouldn’t personally recommend insulting respected members of this board for no justifiable reason, save your own immaturity, you silly tart.

haha. what.

hahaha, love it

best sort of wikipedia vandalism, that

That said, I wouldn’t personally recommend insulting respected members of this board for no justifiable reason, save your own immaturity, you silly tart.

No reason??? lol – He is spouting crap as fact !!! -He is an idiot , with one massive mouth – bit like yourself 🙂 Am I meant to care that he is a "respected member " of the board ? – that I don’t doubt :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
I think you should take your own advice –

Oh n Jester – the fact your trying to drag me down by referring to my gender and insinuating I’m your mother – tends to be a "put down" generally used by people with low intelligence ,low self esteem and a lack of imagination !! :laugh: I can think of so many better insults you could have used 🙂 – your ever so slightly boring 🙂

Try getting out more 🙂

Usually i’d have the decency to post a lengthy rebutle, but frankly I can’t be fucked responding to you with anymore than this. To take virtually every word both Jester and I have posted and inform us we need "to get out more" and are "poorly educated", coupled with the fact you felt the need to quote my post twice just to vent your spleen and try and make me look like a mug (gj making yourself look like one in the process), smacks of immaturity and a lack of self control and general awareness.

The majority of people I’ve had disagreements in the past actually respond with some sense of a balanced opinion. But judging by your poor sentence structure and general tone, i’m going to dignify you with nothing more than my ignore button and end the matter now.

Seems to me you need to learn to control your temper, you touchy fucking cunt. And stop shitting up the thread.

Oh n Jester – the fact your trying to drag me down by referring to my gender and insinuating I’m your mother – tends to be a "put down" generally used by people with low intelligence ,low self esteem and a lack of imagination !! :laugh: I can think of so many better insults you could have used 🙂 – your ever so slightly boring 🙂

Try getting out more :)My use of the term was not gender specific, I had no Idea you were female. The main part of the insult was the former, referring to you as silly, given your over the top reaction. The latter could have been anything from varieties of cheeses to random inanimate objects, it was irrelevant.

The matter is closed as far as i’m concerned, if you have anything else to say take it to PM’s – this thread is a shining example of a drama free zone.

Watching England now, have to say I was sceptical when McClaren called Heskey up but he’s been excellent in the last two games. They can’t deal with his style. Credit to McClaren for that.

It’s really been his rep since day one, going back to his liverpool days, and you could accept it if he wasn’t talented and couldn’t get the job done, but you know he has this ability to boss defenders about. As soon as he gets comfortable in a setup he loses that edge to show people what he truly has, and his game inevitably suffers because of it.

Watching England now, have to say I was sceptical when McClaren called Heskey up but he’s been excellent in the last two games. They can’t deal with his style. Credit to McClaren for that.

well done wales, but they arent as decisive and threatening as they were under hughes. still, maybe they can build on this win; these euro qualifiers have thrown up some mad results across the board

Heskey done really well against Israel, and he’s doing well now against Russia, but that’s the most frustrating thing about him. He’s been asked to prove he merits a place in the England squad, and he’s going about it in the right way, but wait until he plays another 5 England internationals and he’ll be back to the same lumbering donkey that spends more time lying on his back than standing on his feet.

It’s really been his rep since day one, going back to his liverpool days, and you could accept it if he wasn’t talented and couldn’t get the job done, but you know he has this ability to boss defenders about. As soon as he gets comfortable in a setup he loses that edge to show people what he truly has, and his game inevitably suffers because of it.

he’s a nice bloke too though, he gave leicester a load of money when they were struggling with debt to help them out. (i think)

the performance tonight was good, although the commies were stylish without substance. still, the egos of terry and gerrard were suppressed enough to allow the team game to flow, and as ive always said the side have benefited enormously from the lack of lampard and beckham. i do think mclarens taking the piss keeping faith with clubfoot crouch and not even giving defoe a look in but thats englands loss. as a team, england were excellent tonight and look more like the sort of team you’d expect a squad as good on paper as it is to be like.

in group A, the way it shaped up to be until two games ago was POLSKA with a slender lead over cunting portugal, finland and inbred serbia. 4 horse race; in the last two games, poland drew with both portugal and finland, away; a very impressive couple of draws. they didnt go for the wins, but they played it safe and got what they needed rather then risking it all and losing, and credit to them for that.

also scotland beating france away… HA!

If they develop into the players they have the potential to be we will have a better team than we’ve had for years.

If they develop into the players they have the potential to be we will have a better team than we’ve had for years.

well… you’re clearly welsh so you should know better. from the outside it seemed rosy – full millenium stadium, pushing for qualification with wins and talking up chances. oh well

We had a few excellent wins in a row under Hughes, then it all went downhill really. Kind of like Northern Ireland this time around.

We had a few excellent wins in a row under Hughes, then it all went downhill really. Kind of like Northern Ireland this time around.

shasme that footbal completely re volverds aroumnd mopney nopw.

impissed

Credit to pompey, they easily deserved all 3 points.

Rafa would want to get his mallet around the fundamental flaws of rotation pretty sharpish. I mean for the love of christ, the new season is only 5 games old.

All to shit since THE HORROR. Trotters notice that Owen did well in the last England game, perhaps it’s Big Sam’s skillzzzz….

Anyhow, on a serious note, Arsenal have performed superbly and I reckon they have a real chance of not finishing 4th now, although I am not sure at whose expense. Time will tell, but it is by no means impossible for them to put up a serious title challenge if they can remain consistent.

That is all I have to say.

Portsmouth’s manager-in-waiting, I wonder? 😉

You imagine these moments, you pray they’re everything you dreamt they’d be, and they flat out just blow your mind when they come true.

Cheerio maureen.

Look out Chelski. We’re gonna be the best team in blue this year. Well, ignoring Man City. And Everton. And Wigan. And… Reading… o_o

Excellent. 4th round here we come.

6 goals in 9 games, or 6 in 6 starts if you’re a stats fan.

Credit to reading for making a game of it. Mind you, the referee didn’t half help them along the way, but I shan’t be bitter tonight. Decent performance, good first half display from the newly arrived south american lads leto and leiva, and a hattrick from torres – plenty to be optimistic about.

Your Arsenal kids are awesome, but please, don’t talk shit. Newcastle have been eternally pants. The fact that some folk to refer to them as a ‘big’ club is largely due to their following. Fifty thousand idiots fill St. James’ every weekend, failing to realise that they’re watching a team who have won fuck all for the last God knows how many years.

i like how the daft spaniard trots out ???27m pounds worth of talent in the carling cup but neglects to start him in the most important and frankly most honest assesment of a teams progress and ability. and he’s suggested he’ll not start him against wigan. what a cunt. we’ve not been no.1 for 17 year, you melon.

mind you, there’s been a lot of guff about the rotation strategy being to blame. true, fundamental football logic suggests you play your strongest 11 and/or never change a winning team, but when you look at the side that actually played against pompey and brum it wasn’t exactly lacking in quality. if you can’t beat these sort of teams with the players we had on the pitch, rotation or not, you don’t deserve to challenge for the crown of best team in the land. sorry, but that’s that imo.

That’s as may be, but they’re among the favourites to break the top 4, and Allardyce has better credentials than Chelsea’s new gaff. (lol)

(First league team against, 2nd division series B league) for the national cup. That made my week

Oh sorry, wrong sport.

COME ON THE PORTSMOUTH!!!

7-4. The defence really must not have been trying!

7-4. The defence really must not have been trying!Pompey V Reading is first in the running order, naturally enough. I’m looking forward to it.

In other news, david nugent should focus more on trying to break into the first team setup rather than sending camshots of his tallywhacker to teen jailbait. Silly slag has gone and developed england squad syndrome. I fully expect to see his autobiography gathering cobwebs in a bookstore near me quite soon.

Look out Chelski. We’re gonna be the best team in blue this year. Well, ignoring Man City. And Everton. And Wigan. And… Reading… o_o

oh yeah?

been in poland for a week where everyone’s gone mad over euro qualifying, and are stressing out over the shoddy condition of the ukraine and the possibility of losing hosting rights in 2012. it’ll probably be a disaster anyway but i hope they keep the rights as i never thought id see poland hosting a major footie tourno 🙂 it was funny to watch a few top league (ekstraklasa) matches though. i think it was slask against gornik zabrze, and jesus, the ground was conference standard, and so was the footie, slow and tentative as you like. hilarious. it was pretty honest though, and no one pulled back from challenges or made any glaring mistakes either.

back here and the mourinho situation… ‘we hate tottenham’ lol. (the jew spuds link is outdated though) anyway, chelsea will completely fall apart as we know it, and ambramovich will remodel the ruins as a supercompanyclub. i guess i can look back at 96-05 and smile. i wonder how many other clubs will end up like this?

ps – cl yesterday, not the biggest rangers fan (huns :P) but fuck, they impressed. and man u were a bit lucky but pulled out a typical win with loads of confidence, and arsenal, well they’re still riding the crest of their wave.

I’M RUNNIN

OMG MY FACE HURTS NOW ACTUALLY I AM GOING TO FALL OVER ICE PACK!! ICE PACK!!!! AFK

gj celtic though

Good win for celtic, although i’m fairly certain Michel Platini will crucify them by mid next week.

Edit: I heard about the Dida incident before seeing it. Platini will still come down on celtic pretty hard, but might I add at Dida’s expense: hahahahaha, you silly, silly, silly tart.

also….. scotland, rangers, celtic? how long do you think the media will harp on about the renaissance of scottish footie for? but then, to beat france, away, lyon away and the fucking european champs in euros and CL in quick succession is pretty amazing and unexpected.

and dida has always been a silly tart, with the odd good reflex. its funny to see so many tarts like him keeping goal for so long for the biggest clubs in the world.

1 saturday 3pm? wtf?

I’M RUNNIN

OMG MY FACE HURTS NOW ACTUALLY I AM GOING TO FALL OVER ICE PACK!! ICE PACK!!!! AFK

I lolled.

benitez has no humility. and as much as it pains me to admit it the norf london chavs are playing the best football, again. united look imperious too. citeh and pompey are also gelling well.

arsenal are playing well, though their lack of experience showed against sunderland. still wouldn’t put it past them to break back into the top 2 though.

another thing that made me lol – owen stumbling through his post match interview.

Jumping fucking jesus.

But surely if they can play like that, and know they can, why haven’t they done it once this season?

IT’S SOOOOO FRUSTRATING FOR MEES!

LOL.

But surely if they can play like that, and know they can, why haven’t they done it once this season?

IT’S SOOOOO FRUSTRATING FOR MEES!

my only experience of this is in 2002 when poland obliterated all before them in the qualifiers, and then played like a bunch of drunken wankers and got knocked out of the world cup in the group stages. but yeah, it sucks. a lot of players dont have their priorities or motivations straight.

england first half = wonderful performance. robinson didnt really have anything to do, sol and rio were comfortable, micah and wright phillips combined well (good goal from shaun), joe and ashley ran at people well, rooney and owen were lively (owen didnt do that much though, come on, he’s like trezeguet, absolute world class finisher, but doesnt really do anything else, decent movement though) barry was assured again and looked good alongside gerrard. second half, 1 dodgy spill from robinson, defoe or bentley should have been given a run out ahead of lamps, booing of lamps and neville as they came on was a bit obvious and boring but not blah blah bang out of order like everyone harps on, ahsleys injury didnt look good, match petered out.

scotland, wow. good performance and atmosphere

wales, LOL. also cypriot stadium – they look football mad dont they.

in group A, there are 8 teams. azerbaijan, armenia and kazakhstan are the fodder backward nations, although they’ve all caused upsets. belgium have some good players but never got into the running. before the match, POLSKA lead the group by two points over finland, and they had both played 11 matches. portugal and serbia had a game in hand and were 2 and 3 points behind finland consecutively. portugal beat azerbaijan 2 0 as expected. poland went 1 0 down at HOME to the borats and then the internetz told me the match had been suspended. i thought ‘oh my god. they’ve managed to blow it. fucking hooligans ruining things, legia fans already tore up stadium and got them banned in europe this season. fucking unprofessional player pricks losing AT HOME TO KAZAKHSTAN. fucking poland.’ but apparently the floodlights merely failed, game restarted when they were fixed, ebi smolarek gets a hattrick and we win. then belgium and armenia hold finland and serbia to draws which basically derails both their challenges 😀 😀

so basically poland and england are virtually through.

RUGBY WORLD CUP SEMI aside

that was a fucking good match. i always love aussia NZ matchups but england france is just as good, especially when we recover from that 36 0 to get to the semi and france is the host. great atmosphere, good paced match, france looked sharp and aggressive, of course it was going to be tight, they nearly got through a number of times, when jonnys kick hit the post fuck me that was insane, and then, we fucking did it, we beat them!! bring on the argies or boks for revenge!!

Also, lol @ Wales.

Jumping fucking jesus.

You won 4-1 against Northampton (if my newspaper snippet reading memory serves me rightly) last night. Not such a bad thing 😉

Topic of the moment surely has to be Frank ‘The Pie’ Lampard being booed by the England crowd (or were they Estonians in disguise?). Frankly, excuse the pun, I think the abuse was wrong. Perhaps justifiable to a certain extent on the basis that he has been pants for England for a while now, but to boo him is extreme to say the least. Counter productive and uncalled for.

Tomorrows game against Russia will be interesting on the fabled ‘watery’ and ‘plastic’ pitch. A win would guarantee qualification, and anything less would leave us needing the win against Croatia in the final match, which is arguably the toughest of the whole lot. If I could suggest one thing to McClaren it would be to start David Bentley, simply because he’s had more competetive experience of playing on an artificial surface than most others in that team. (Salzburg v Rovers – UEFA Cup qualifier).

Anyway, good luck England. Though I’ll be vesting a far greater interest in the Scots blazing trail to the Euro’s 😉

england gonna get thrashed, but i hope to be proved wrong.

this is valid as rugby is a form of football, technically at least

Also, lol @ Wales.

It wasn’t as bad as your result in Cyprus.

That is all I have to say.

Anyway, good luck England. Though I’ll be vesting a far greater interest in the Scots blazing trail to the Euro’s 😉

bentley got booed as well; england fans aren’t the best 12th man in international football. i don’t think it’s entirely uncalled for, but like you say it’s counter productive for the national team, although mclaren should have given someone else a runout ahead of lampard against estonia, considering we had won the match, people like bentley and defoe could do with the experience and barry and gerrard have struck up a good understanding in the centre.

im surprised at how well scotland have done (and celtic rangers and aberdeen have followed suit) but it’s not over yet, and hutton is out for georgia too. the last time ireland i think it was went there, someone from the crowd threw a knife at the ref.

so lads, the rugby then

england gonna get thrashed, but i hope to be proved wrong.

this is valid as rugby is a form of football, technically at least

some etonian picked the ball up and baffled his chums by touching it down over the goal line about 190 years ago i believe.

i dont know, the game england play isnt perfect and i thought the forwards didnt push on enough when we had the ball but they look more assured and confident. i would love to see robinson try with one of his runs

It wasn’t as bad as your result in Cyprus.

That is all I have to say.

toshack criticises his players professionalism and accuses them of being stuck up (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=472958&cc=5739) what do you think? your screen name suggests you know more about welsh footballers and the game in general then me

Toshack threw a wobbly last time we lost in Cyprus too.

He seems to think we should be doing better and trying harder, though maybe he should re-think that when he considers the standard of our players and the fact that much better teams with much better players (eg Germany) couldn’t even win in Cyprus.

Also, publicly slagging everyone off a couple of days before a game in San Marino that we absolutley have to win, and win convincingly, is not going to be good for morale.

No one’s questioning Toshack’s ability as a coach but he does have the ability to be a grade A cunt at times. He’s almost as bad as Savage.

My theory is that Toshack has lost the dressing room and they won’t listen to him because he’s ostracised so many players.

And I don’t ever remember seeing Wales playing any decent football at all.

Also, i’m looking foward to seeing the England players all end up with career-threatning injuries due to that death trap of a pitch. Should be fun.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=46221&d=1192653245

In all fairness, i’d position the blame entirely with the FAI for appointing stan in the first place.

The lad was offered the chance to manage his international team, so I won’t fault him for accepting the position and trying his best.

supersub time! lets bring on – boro pet downing, a lampard who doesnt fit the current england system well and fucking crouch. also, gerrards miss was horrific.

what a bad day for the home nations. also, liechtenstein beat iceland 3 0, as if to try and upstage luxembourgs first ever win against belarus on saturday

Toshack should go, Staunton should go, McClaren should go. All three are underachieving.

Hope Scotland do Italy at Hampden but can’t see it happening.

On the domestic front, Sammy Lee has finally gone. He’s a good guy but he’s Prem manager material. We should have brought someone in over the summer. Paul Jewell seems to be favourite to replace him. I could live with that.

>:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=46221&d=1192653245

In all fairness, i’d position the blame entirely with the FAI for appointing stan in the first place.

The lad was offered the chance to manage his international team, so I won’t fault him for accepting the position and trying his best.

haha.

i think whats the worst sign of all is pretty much everyone i know couldnt be bothered with the national side atm. apathy is probably the worst state for any team/nations fans to be in.

also, i was at the plymouth argyle game today. lee martin looks to be a pretty good player, united fans should keep an eye on him.

oh well, better than 36-0 and at any rate, if you’d told me a few weeks ago we were going to be in the final i’d probably have laughed at you. still, the difference between the two sides was pretty evident… we need to get our act together pretty swiftly.

oh well, better than 36-0 and at any rate, if you’d told me a few weeks ago we were going to be in the final i’d probably have laughed at you. still, the difference between the two sides was pretty evident… we need to get our act together pretty swiftly.

i think it was harsh to disallow the try, perhaps his foot scraped the line before he tried but fuck it was close

SA were deserving winners though, very strong in the tackle and more adventurous with their play. england can be proud though, i think us making the final at all is as big a surprise as the form and final position of argentina (i dont follow rugby beyond the world cup as ive never really been into it that much so i dont know if argentina were building up to this for years; i know who the big 8 are and all the rules and that; anyway)

football matters, good prem matches today, i enjoyed alexs goal, excellent shot from a good defender who with a bit of a run in the side can impose himself as a solid benchmark in the team. pompey and blackburn look like solid propositions, and arsenals form doesnt show any sign of slowing, neither does united, they look imperious. the merseyside derby was a laugh as always

snooker – murphy v o sullivan was one of the best matches ive ever seen; 1 visit frames, flowing, confident snooker from both players and a fantastic comeback by ronnie; the only fuckups came in the safety exchanges, and ronnie won out. fu v greene was comical by comparison; they also went to a deciding frame, and me and my mate joe have played games with less mistakes then that frame, it was hilarious. i think ronnie FTW tomorrow.

i saw a bit of the mersey derby whilst sellin’ the half-time lottery for argyle, it was pretty amusing.

However, South Africa deserved their win.

top cat hows that lottery selling job working for you? it sounds like fun to be honest

top cat hows that lottery selling job working for you? it sounds like fun to be honest

it’s a decent lark, i’m getting a good wage for an hour and half’s work and i get into the game for free so as far as it goes it’s a good enough way to spend a few saturdays a year. plus what with all the people it doesn’t really get boring at any time.

And lol @ Jenas. Most over-rated player probably to ever exist. How he gets anywhere near any premiership side at all is beyond me.

sounds good, how did you get the job? i have a few mates who work for chelsea tv and the website, but they’re millwall and arsenal fans respectively, and it took them ages to get to do anything interesting.

Newcastle win well again, if we could start winning away from home we’d be right up there come the end of the season. Cacapa looks a class act, Faye is a fucking BEAST, and Owen, Martins and Viduka will always score goals, and Emre looks like he got a rocket up his arse from Fat Sam. Long may it continue.

And lol @ Jenas. Most over-rated player probably to ever exist. How he gets anywhere near any premiership side at all is beyond me.

say what you like about fat sam but he’s a good manager; he gets through to players and seems to get them fired up well

Man, Slavia Prague must not be very happy, but Arsenal were amazing last night.

Also, stan finally got the chop. Huzzah.

who said he wasnt =o

my mum knows the wife of one of the directors so she basically offered me a job. most of the people who work for the club get it through personal connections or just being in the right place at the right time, though, to be honest.

LOL. So am I.

say what you like about fat sam but he’s a good manager; he gets through to players and seems to get them fired up well

Mang, just look at Bolton’s record with him in charge, and their form this season. I thought the FA should have given Big Sam the England job instead of McClaren.

Mang, just look at Bolton’s record with him in charge, and their form this season. I thought the FA should have given Big Sam the England job instead of McClaren.

guy gets a lot of flak for the whole bung thing, long ball football criticisms etc. but of course his record shows he gets results and he gets players from all walks behind him, and of course he would have kicked the england camp into shape and have them playing more consistently then mclaren, who is simply a continuation of the eriksson style

my mum knows the wife of one of the directors so she basically offered me a job. most of the people who work for the club get it through personal connections or just being in the right place at the right time, though, to be honest.

fair dos, ive got a few jobs in the past through mates or family referring me. as long as you get your job done innit

i enjoyed the CL this week 🙂 kudos to arsenal and milan, some stunning football from them. united confident against a really lazy kiev defence, but they aren’t perfect in defence themselves, and if a couple of teams can open them up and exploit that, then we could see them falter. arsenal liverpool should be interesting, pool had started so well this season, look at them now haha.

its chelsea, are you surprised. the modern football fan is more plastic then a newsreader on Fox.

english fans aren’t even the worst, i hear spanish fans make ours look like nationalist war veterans for loyalty in comparison. drogba slates the club and states quite categorically he wants to leave, but a few good performances and goals later he’s the apple of the crowds eyes again; he is clearly going to leave, without even needing anyone who works at the club to tell me straight.

i typed out a paragraph trying to pigeonhole richer exhibitionist searching football fans but it’s just easy for match going fans to be fickle, and everyone knows these things anyway

and at some clubs like zaragoza i think if you’re black then lol your ‘fans’ will take to you like a fish to water

shurek, we’re not disputing the fact that english clubs and fans are on par with the spanish.

hammers beat cov, shit.

D’oh! Despite his job title, Spurs’ Director of Football evidently hadn’t read the message sent out by Levy via the club’s official website on August 21 which announced: "We want Champions League football. We are an ambitious club and we have discussed our expectations with Martin." Speaking through an interpreter, Ramos also appeared to have been inflicted with amnesia. Despite being photographed leaving a Spanish hotel in August with the then Tottenham vice-chairman Paul Kemsley and club secretary John Alexander, Ramos stunned reporters by declaring: "I can honestly say I didn’t meet any one of the Tottenham directors."

Asked why he had subsequently told the Spanish media at a televised press conference that Spurs had made him a "dizzying" offer, Ramos pleaded misquotation. "I didn’t say that," he maintained.

rofl

meanwhile, the british olympic association want to instate a british football team into the next olympics. yeah, i somehow doubt that idea will get off the ground guys

As for the English bid, it probably stands a good chance but be careful about writing off the other bids, the British media is giving them no coverage so we don’t know how strong they are or are not as the case may be; we are blinkered which makes us biased. Anyway, there is Wembley, Old Trafford, the Emirates, Eastlands, Stanley Park by that stage, Stamford Bridge, St. James’ Park, Villa Park and I reckon they would extend the bid to contain, at the very least, Cardiff if not Hampden too, so overall, very solid.

also, play Milner and Zog tommorow plz Sam.

As for the English bid, it probably stands a good chance but be careful about writing off the other bids, the British media is giving them no coverage so we don’t know how strong they are or are not as the case may be; we are blinkered which makes us biased. Anyway, there is Wembley, Old Trafford, the Emirates, Eastlands, Stanley Park by that stage, Stamford Bridge, St. James’ Park, Villa Park and I reckon they would extend the bid to contain, at the very least, Cardiff if not Hampden too, so overall, very solid.

can’t say things are ever boring at chelsea eh 🙂 and lampard has raised his game again. it’s clear he’s not happy though as if he was he wouldn’t let his game drop at all, as it has done in fluctuations in the last few years. and i do think he gives more of a shit about chelsea then england, which is gay of him, but nobodies loss at all if mclaren wises up and ditches him completely in favour of barry (not hargreaves, either; he had a good world cup and he’s still living off the resulting favour, although he is undoubtedly a good solid player) by the same token, beckhams stardom is a further destabilising aspect of his game and sure enough one or two of his long balls will hit the spot in a match but to sacrifice flowing passing play for 30 odd attempts at this at his behest? owen seems to be revered unnecessarily too, although unlike aforementioned he comes up with the goods. gerrard should put the same drive into his game as he does with liverpool, and not miss really easy chances like he did against russia. i think it’s disgraceful how much a player of defoes quality is ostracised from the side.

as for the england world cup bid, this articles weighs up their chances and those of the other contenders pretty well (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=477641&cc=5739)

if they did have an olympic team they’d probably win as it’d be full of the young english players who’d actually give a shit unlike pampered pricks like lampard.

that’s a funny prediction about a GB team; i don’t know about northern ireland, but wales and scotland have some pretty good young players that would make the side. (that would be the whole point of the exercise, anyway) and besides, argentina, brazil and a number of other nations have some exceptional yoof teams that would seriously challenge any GB or indeed england team

they pratically handed pompey the goals, downright embarrasing tbh.

as for arsenal man ure, pretty much what i expected.

HOORAY!

we scored more in one game than they’ve got all season

edit – oh my sweet tits, the 5th was majestic

edit the 2nd – the 6th weren’t bad neither

benayoun is having a stormer

a triumphant third edit – i am in WONDERLAND

man, i wish jester were still about ;(

and ruud gullit’s the boss of la galaxy
what fun

Fair to say that we’re all pretty gobsmacked up here.

i cannot contain my excitement.

i.e. scrap a 0-0 draw

my expectations are dancing with hitler

as per the rest, 2 5-0s and a 6-0 – this is a high-scoring season, isnt it? hell of a lot of massive victories going on.

We deserved too loose. We played wank today.

barton’s a thug, though, what he did just before the end of the half is disgusting and has no place in football.

Anyway we got a point, we robbed the mackems, again, that’s all that matters.

meanwhile, the british olympic association want to instate a british football team into the next olympics. yeah, i somehow doubt that idea will get off the ground guys

England’s already got the olympics of 2012. I’m surprised if they also want the 2018 World Cup. Anyway, the Bene(lux) deserves it :).

OK, whateversy.

I can make a Pok???mon card if you want./

…

You see, I also use the

…

A lot.

…

Mike, you’ll die early.

Bwa ha ha!

50 charges, and Mike Newell was right all along.

Cocking FA and their cocking rules.

Although, it would make me rofl a lot if you now went on to lose to Croatia next week.

Also, unlucky Scotland.

yeah, i’ve been really pleased that scotland have battled well in a hard group and shown up a few sides. and up until about a week ago i was actually hoping that they qualified.

do you listen to talksport?

i generally do on the way to/from work and sometimes of an evening depending on games. the amount of anti-english barbs we’ve had to endure over the last week from the jocks is pathetic. all because of some dumb historic nonsense that has nothing to do with football.

so fuck you, scotland. enjoy your summer :-*

also, how do you feel about toshack atm? seems like another staunton situation to me.

=/

Last month against Cyprus and San Marino was ridiculous, but it was much better today. He’s probably bought himself some time. We matched an Irish team full of Premiership regulars. Bearing in mind we had mostly Championship players with a few Premiership fringe and one or two regulars on the pitch puts it into perspective.

We’ve got to play Germany away now in our last qualifier which means zero points, so we’ll probably finish 5th or 6th as Slovakia finish with a game in San Marino.

He’ll have to do a lot better in the next campaign to get a new contract though. His contract runs out at the end of the World Cup 2010 qualifiers, if we at least challenge seriously for qualification he’ll get an extension I’d have thought.

How is that any different from English fans hating on the Germans or French, or even the Portuguese for that matter, though?

Uh, yes, I am confident.

i’m sorry, but this is really dumb.

yeah, they’re not as good as the media and some really stupid supporters like to tell us they are (one guy on the radio said they should be topping this group by 6 points by now, for example), but considering before the russia game they won five 3-0 on the spin, plus played brazil and germany off the park in two friendlies, they’re not bad at all.

going to croatia russia and israel was never going to be easy, when you consider their records at home. it’s the sheer arrogance of the fans and the media that think we should just turn these teams over in their own backyard.

and people should get off mcclarens back. no, he wasn’t the right man for the job and i don’t particularly like the guy, but venomously turning on him just because of a defeat in the russian winter on a PLASTIC PITCH? just smacks of a bit unfair. particularly with the luck he’s had with injuries.

How is that any different from English fans hating on the Germans or French, or even the Portuguese for that matter, though?

yeah but the point is you don’t get english fans ringing up portugese, german and french radios taunting them. and i think the english have just reason to hate the portugese in footballing terms. what’s scotlands excuse?

FALKLANDS 72

I used to really like james whale’s show on talksport when i was younger. i don’t listen to it now because i dont have a radio. i could listen online, but it wouldnt be the same.

PLUSSY: Is it just me or does the BBC’s crack commentating squad increasingly sound like parodies of themselves?

"Anything can happen"

"We must be positive"

"England did brilliant on the day – we just didn’t win"

McClaren: "It’s going to be a 90 minute game" REALLY?

comedy goals galore tonight

what is going on

i honestly hope they keep it up we dont qualify. too many times england have scraped the barrel and scrapped through to major tournaments to predictably shock the world and their opponents with their sheer mediocrity that belies their talent and their incredible arrogance, as well as that of the media that represents us.

knowing england and watching the croatians flounder in defence, im sure england will scrape the two required goals. probably a hollywoodgoldenballs special in the dying seconds. if that does lamentably happen, i hope it’s met with a fucking round of jeering. if we qualify, then mclaren will probably stay in a job despite all the rightful criticism that will come his way, because the FA wont be forced by the lack of presence at a major tournament, and the circus will carry on.

the team is a disgrace of overconfidence, borne from that prick, who’s done nothing but continue the complacent, scrappy, elitist mantra of eriksson. i want to see croatia win because then the fierce criticism coupled with the humiliation of how SHIT we were might force a fucking change for the better. the team has enough talent for it.

edit: 3-2. great goal.

England were shockingly poor, even though I secretly hoped you’d get through as I still don’t like the Russians for Euro 2004. The skill levels of the Croats on a mudbath were far higher than England’s; added to which England’s tactics were totally one-dimensional and you didn’t really change anything. I think you deserved to lose by more to be honest although I still think you deserve to be there more than Russia who can count themselves very lucky.

edit: 3-2. great goal.

well put. posted an essay on the travesty in the england croatia thread. good fucking riddance.

in other news… poland finish top of their group (fucking get in, jedziemy, my family’s polish you see, born in england but have split loyalties), portugal second, finland and serbia played well but couldnt pip them. holland lose to belarus so they dont finish in the top seed pot, which with austria, switzerland and greece in it as previous winners and hosts will actually be weaker then the second seed pot for the group draw for the main tournament.

my appologies for anyone who i told off in this thread. you were right all along. they really are that bad.

i don’t think they’ve got much option but to sack the manager now. still don’t think it’s all his fault though. we just are not that good.

=/

also, i would like to say that the problem of foreigners in the premiership is not a problem considering the fact european law covers it (for some nationalities at least) and it being a reaction to the dearth of organisation and the pursuit of immediate success instead of building the grassroots. also, a far too rigid tactical approach to young players. there are plenty of englishmen in the premiership, too – it’s just that most of them are aimless opportunistic journeymen.

that said, pearcey’s U-21 side is looking good 🙂 i’m even beginning to think that it was a good idea to appoint him U-21 boss first, instead of signing him for the first team ahead of mclaren as i hoped 18 months ago. perhaps, a hidden backup masterstroke by the FA? a few more years experience, building a young side that he might later inherit as the full england manager, especially if the good form continues… who knows. i’m hoping, anyway

100% agree.

10 point deduction for Luton.

Stupid rule from a piece of wank FA who can’t do anything right.

i think a complete overhaul of grass roots football in england should be a priority over chosing the next manager. not just for england, but for all the home nations really.

having said that, mourinho being ruled out i don’t like any of the other candidates at all.

its downright embarrasing now. mind boggling tactics and mentallity, and Torres should have scored at least 5.

gj Bolton though, holy shit.

it seems English football has caught Spanish footballs infection of boardroom politics affecting every aspect of the club. a sad day indeed.

‘Billy Davies’ exit from Derby County on Monday means almost a quarter of managers in the English professional leagues have been ousted since the start of the season. It’s a remarkable state of affairs when we haven’t reached the end of November.’

wtf? genuinly shocking.

but yeah, that highlights how insane fans and pressure is these days.

2 bad results and the crowd turn on you.

its a cancer sweeping through England which needs to be cured if you lot are ever going to win a major championship.

And lucky PSV Eindhoven; they did manage to beat the Russians. We survive the European winter, CSKA – PSV, 0-1

Ok– later.

The former Chelsea boss has emerged as the fans’ favourite to take over the reins from Steve McClaren, who was dismissed last week after his failure to lead England to the Euro 2008 finals.

FA chief executive Brian Barwick is set to begin his hunt for England’s new boss within the next week – and Mourinho admits he would welcome an approach.

my goodness.

Ok– later.

make that double

i would get down on my hands and knees and give him a blow job in front of my mum and dad if he took the job.

seriously, just fucking appoint the man.

I’ve looked all over and found sweet FA (pun only semi-intended) 😀

i personally would be ecstatic if mourihno took charge. absolutely the best man for the job

also, ‘arry, lol. saw that one coming a mile off really though didn’t we.

mourinho would get the team playing efficient and very unnatractive football, lampard would be a guaranteed starter, we’d win everything, we’d fast become the most hated team in the world, probably dive a little more, siege mentality, more fierce rivalry between fans in the stands and pubs at euros and WC, and he’d absolutely fucking fleece the FA for all it’s worth. like, seriously, he’ll negotiate himself a contract that will bring the FA to its knees financially.

mourinho would get the team playing efficient and very unnatractive football, lampard would be a guaranteed starter, we’d win everything, we’d fast become the most hated team in the world, probably dive a little more, siege mentality, more fierce rivalry between fans in the stands and pubs at euros and WC, and he’d absolutely fucking fleece the FA for all it’s worth. like, seriously, he’ll negotiate himself a contract that will bring the FA to its knees financially.

I appreciate this is humour Will, but the key points still remain key points. If Mourinho was appointed manager of England then I very much doubt they’d play unnatractive football. It’s a whole different kettle of fish. I can’t understand why everyone assumes Mourinho to be a defensively minded manager when infact, hold on a second, he actually goes out and wins Champions League trophies and Premier League titles.

You can’t criticise a manager that has actually been there and done it on every level bar the one he’s not had the oppourtinity to deal with. McClaren was a joke from start to finish. God only knows why he was appointed Sven’s right hand man never mind the full England manager. What did he achieve? Boro in a UEFA Cup Final. Jesus FA, get real.

I’m not saying that Mourinho would walk into the job and immediately have them playing silky football, or even defensive football or whatever but he’d have a winning mentality that has gone with him everywhere he’s gone. If Lampard is a key part of that, then so what? If the entire squad revolves around a Chelsea mantle, then so what? England fans are so quick to follow the ‘what is generally agreeable at the time’ notion.

but tbh i think every england fan now wants us to actually WIN something tangible, and it’s got to the stage that i don’t think we’d care how we won it.

dive better than the italians, cheat better than the portugese, whinge better than the french, and grind out a drab 0-0 draw just to go through on penalties like the germans. we know we can do it!

Except whenever it’s penalties, the English bottle it like the, uh, well, English…

EDIT: Horsham F.C on Sky Sports TV? What parallel Universe am I in?

And I highly doubt that "everyone" in the town is there.

since when did england play attractive football in the first place though?

its a results orientated business, and mourinho WILL bring results, so the brand of football is irrelevant. if it happens to be winning and attractive, then great.

that’s pretty much what i said

=/

Quoted for hilarious truth.

How about that.

I HATE YUU, SORENSEN; I FRICKIN’ DO.

also im new and this is my first post on this thread

The 25-year-old is expected to appear in court next year charged with occasioning actual bodily harm on former Manchester City team-mate Ousmane Dabo, although he insists he did nothing wrong.

He has also attracted negative headlines after stubbing out a cigar in the eye of a City youth team player at a Christmas party and assaulting a 15-year-old boy on a pre-season trip to Thailand with the Blues.

Barton has never been anything less than candid in interviews – most recently he called Newcastle fans’ treatment of manager Sam Allardyce "vicious" – but insists he will ultimately judged on his words and actions by a higher being.

"With things that have happened you become more spiritual, and I think the main thing for me is I don’t think I’d ever be judged on this earth," he said.

"I think at the end of the day you can do whatever you want to do here.

"There’s one person standing there and that’s you, and you’ve got to answer to every decision you’ve made. Whatever high power it is, when you finally meet him.

"Whether it be right or wrong, I believe when I stand in front of my maker then I can say to him ‘yeah, I did this for this reason; this, that for this reason’."

D: D: D: D:

im going for 2-0 to you guys, we’re a wounded animal atm and will fight, but class will show.

At what point do you just give up and realise you’ll never have a decent team, no matter who you put in charge?

i really thought he’d sort us out, but his constant chopping and changing has destabalised the team, and we dont have steven gerrard or torres so we dont get away with it.

he was giving it all that in a bbc interview a few days ago about how everyone kept giving him stick and abusing him for his behaviour. no shit there, he’s a prick.

here’s the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/7124751.stm

he’s done nothing wrong though, and if it was anyone else it wouldn’t be noticed. though actually if it was anyone else he’d probably be midway through a prison sentence for gbh, but let’s ignore inconvenient things like the truth.

he was giving it all that in a bbc interview a few days ago about how everyone kept giving him stick and abusing him for his behaviour. no shit there, he’s a prick.

here’s the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/7124751.stm

he’s done nothing wrong though, and if it was anyone else it wouldn’t be noticed. though actually if it was anyone else he’d probably be midway through a prison sentence for gbh, but let’s ignore inconvenient things like the truth.

i agree

Thing that annoys me though is Arsenal and Liverpool invariably are always a game down as they miss the mid-week fixtures after the first weekend of Premiership action because of Champions League Qualifiers. This was Arsenals game which the missed. So why weren’t Liverpool playing there game in hand as well? Don’t see them playing any other matches this week.

=/

Transfer-wise, with lucas coming into his own I think poor oul momo is gonna have to set up a swiss bank account and head for serie a. I’d be more than suprised if a striker didn’t set sail as well.

I’ve got a funny feeling max is gonna try a cheeky bid for anelka in jan. Himself and torres sounds like a tasty combo on paper. Might even be worth trying to snatch melberg on a free; he’d be decent cover at centre-half.

Though as the next away game is against Liverpool, that might not last…

Seriously though what a performance.

Though as the next away game is against Liverpool, that might not last…

best away form in the league and indifferent at home

how times change eh

arsenal lost, spurs won, the natural order of this season has been reversed. what is going on

they were abysmal yesterday, tbh. worst ive seen them in a long, long time.

As for us, well what I said in I think my last post here sums it up. For as long as i’ve known us we can battle to get ourselves into a position where we can challenge, and then we bottle it. Awful. Rafa will be looking over his shoulder as Lippi, Mourinho and Capello thunder towards Anfield.

(I am a traveller of time)

Ohhhhh, Football!!! I thought you were discussing Football.
Eh, I’ve no problem with Football though, it’s better than Football nowadays.
All these damn Football stars getting into trouble and getting shot up just for ratings. But Football keeps it traditional…with the sportsmanship.

it’s hard to know which sport you mean with which sentence these days

They used to be famous, but from this game they are just wank. We were all over them for 90 minutes, and it should have been atleast 3-0

Bring on Liverpool.

Ferguson might, in the words of one newspaper headline, have ‘cancelled Christmas’, but for Fleet Street, Christmas has come early. Reporting on the alleged excesses of the Manchester United players with questionable relish, it depicts their party as verging on the uncontrollable in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

While 19-year-old defender Jonny Evans has been released on bail after being questioned by officers over the alleged rape of a 26-year-old party-goer, it is the behaviour of his senior first-team colleagues that is dominating coverage.

The Times says that the mood of the day-long party soured as the squad – under the influence of ‘testosterone and booze’ – descended on the Great John Street Hotel to be met by approximately 100 of the ‘prettiest girls in Manchester’. With none of the players’ wives and girlfriends permitted to attend, ‘models, ex-soap stars and well-known faces from Manchester’s party circuit’ were invited to provide the footballers with female company. A ‘United insider’ is quoted as saying in The Sun: "Only the best-looking were allowed in. They were hand-picked and very excited, almost in a state of hysteria."

According to The Independent, ‘Every room in the 30-bedroom hotel, where prices range from ???235 to ???395 per night, was booked out by the squad’ and, ‘Each player was allocated a set number of guests and eight security men were hired to stop any unwanted intruders gaining entry and to confiscate all mobile phones, which were banned from being taken into the building.’

However, Daily Mirror showbiz reporter Sarah Tetteh claims to have been a guest at the party and reports how ‘my friend and I’ were personally treated to Wayne Rooney ‘running through his personal repertoire of cheesy lines’.

‘He came over and perched himself at the end of our sofa, asked us how old we were – and how we knew each other. When I explained we’d met at university, he raised his eyebrows and said: "I bet you two were naughty together at uni.

‘"Did you do threesomes? You know, two girls and a lad?"’ she reports.

Other accounts are less savoury, however. The Mirror says that ‘one tearful woman guest claimed she had been repeatedly pestered by one of the club’s stars’.

"It was horrible. This guy had been pestering me and my friends for ages trying to get us up to a bedroom. I kept telling him ‘No’ but he just wouldn’t take it. He was really drunk as were the rest of them.

"Then he just grabbed me and started to drag me away from the main area towards the toilets. Thankfully the security man spotted what was going on and came to my help. was so relieved to see him. I was in tears. The players were treating girls like pieces of meat. It was like a horrendous cattle market."

Another guest told The Daily Telegraph that the party became increasingly debauched and sleazy as the hours of drinking began to take their toll.

"A lot of guys were looking for women, looking for sex," the unnamed man told the newspaper.

"A lot of women were dressed in little short skirts, they were falling over after a couple of drinks. By 3-4am you could see a lot of sexual situations were going to take place.

"There were one or two scuffles on the dance floor. Guys were falling over, just being loud and mouthy. There were a lot of undesirable people there, a bit rough. There were hangers-on.

"A lot of women were kissing guys, getting off with guys. It was like a free-for-all."

Manchester United have yet to comment formally on either details of the party or the allegations of rape. The Telegraph says that ‘almost all’ of the players had left the hotel when the attack is said to have occurred. However, a livid Ferguson ‘read the riot act’ to the squad when they returned to training on Wednesday and is understood to have told his players that they will never be allowed to host a Christmas party in future.

lawl

not even dignifying it with my attention.

also, that fat zorro needs to be sacked.

not even dignifying it with my attention.

well yeah, but its pretty funny.

also, that fat zorro needs to be sacked.

finally a pool fan that actually thinks he should get the bullet. you lads arent any closer to the title since he joined the club.

The squad he inherited from houllier was dire. He got rid of the likes of diouf, murphy, traore, smicer, cheyrou, biscan, mellor, etc. and brought in the likes of alonso, reina, torres, agger, mascherano, garcia, lucas, babel, etc. And all on a pretty modest transfer budget, comparatively speaking. Not to mention the number of quality youngsters he’s brought in since steve heighway shot the crow.

And let’s not forget, in the 2005-2006 season he led us to our highest point total since the premier league began, with an FA cup on the side. Throw in 2 champions league finals, won one, one lost. A carling cup final, a european super cup and a charity shield.

I say give him one more season to try crack the premiership. Let the yanks dip the hand, tell him to sign whoever the piss he wants, and get the fuck out of his way. Put jolly old rick parry’s fat nut in a jar on the shelf, and let rafa conduct the transfers himself. If he can’t do it after all of that, i’ll throw my hands up and say farewell to him.

In all seriousness though, who could we bring in to replace him anyway? If the yanks do get twitchy and give him the shove, we’re instantly gonna lose the likes of reina, torres, alonso and the rest of the spanish inquisition. We’d be starting from scratch again and end up being another 4 poxy years off the pace.

The squad he inherited from houllier was dire. He got rid of the likes of diouf, murphy, traore, smicer, cheyrou, biscan, mellor, etc. and brought in the likes of alonso, reina, torres, agger, mascherano, garcia, lucas, babel, etc. And all on a pretty modest transfer budget, comparatively speaking. Not to mention the number of quality youngsters he’s brought in since steve heighway shot the crow.

And let’s not forget, in the 2005-2006 season he led us to our highest point total since the premier league began, with an FA cup on the side. Throw in 2 champions league finals, won one, one lost. A carling cup final, a european super cup and a charity shield.

I say give him one more season to try crack the premiership. Let the yanks dip the hand, tell him to sign whoever the piss he wants, and get the fuck out of his way. Put jolly old rick parry’s fat nut in a jar on the shelf, and let rafa conduct the transfers himself. If he can’t do it after all of that, i’ll throw my hands up and say farewell to him.

In all seriousness though, who could we bring in to replace him anyway? If the yanks do get twitchy and give him the shove, we’re instantly gonna lose the likes of reina, torres, alonso and the rest of the spanish inquisition. We’d be starting from scratch again and end up being another 4 poxy years off the pace.

Yeah, but a lot of the good he has done and the points above are in the past. Yes, he’s done a lot in cup competitions for us and I think we’ll always love him for giving us perhaps two of the most entertaining and memorable finals in history (though the FA Cup final shows how he can get his tactics wrong). I’m not saying he’s not done us a good turn over the past four years, i’m saying in the next four years I really don’t see him delivering anywhere else but Europe, because I genuinely don’t think he has the skills to master English football.

I’ve always agreed with Mourinho. Yes, it’s great to win the Champs League or the FA Cup, but at the end of the day the best teams prove they are no.1 in their own country. And to do that you need to win the Premier League. At no point under Benitez have we looked like we are in the same league as United or Chelsea, and now this year Arsenal. I agree he’s got us to our highest position, but Houllier got us playing scintillating stuff before he hit the glass ceiling as well.

I just feel you watch the other sides and while we can turn it on, like today, we just lack…something. Especially going forward. He’s had the money and he’s had the time, and yet four years later United are still in another league to us. And he compounds that with his continual unflinching rotation policy which has proven not to work, and is upsetting a large portion of the faithful.

And when you fear an away tie at Burnley or Forest in the domestic cups or United or Arsenal at home in the league, yet whenyou draw Barca or Inter in the Champs League and think we’ll just turn them over, it’s a really dumb situation to get yourself into.

And I don’t think all the Spaniards will up and off if he goes. Particularly if they bring in someone like Lippi, who might add some much needed Italian steel and discipline in wide areas and some clinical finishing up front.

I think Houllier ran his course. And Benitez is in danger of going the same way. It’s a question of whether we swap now to get the world class managers left on offer or wait until 2008/09 and have another clearout. It is a tough one.

The squad he inherited from houllier was dire. He got rid of the likes of diouf, murphy, traore, smicer, cheyrou, biscan, mellor, etc. and brought in the likes of alonso, reina, torres, agger, mascherano, garcia, lucas, babel, etc. And all on a pretty modest transfer budget, comparatively speaking. Not to mention the number of quality youngsters he’s brought in since steve heighway shot the crow.

And let’s not forget, in the 2005-2006 season he led us to our highest point total since the premier league began, with an FA cup on the side. Throw in 2 champions league finals, won one, one lost. A carling cup final, a european super cup and a charity shield.

I say give him one more season to try crack the premiership. Let the yanks dip the hand, tell him to sign whoever the piss he wants, and get the fuck out of his way. Put jolly old rick parry’s fat nut in a jar on the shelf, and let rafa conduct the transfers himself. If he can’t do it after all of that, i’ll throw my hands up and say farewell to him.

In all seriousness though, who could we bring in to replace him anyway? If the yanks do get twitchy and give him the shove, we’re instantly gonna lose the likes of reina, torres, alonso and the rest of the spanish inquisition. We’d be starting from scratch again and end up being another 4 poxy years off the pace.

fact is, he’s no closer to winning the league then houiller ever was.

and as minty just pointed out, the best team ALWAYS wins the league. in a cup competition, the draw can be kind to you(millwall making the fa cup final a few years back?), you can get some luck over 2-3 matches, etc etc.

not so in the league, its 38 games and the best team always wins, and rafa has never seriously challenged for it.

plus, apart from Torres, Babel and one or two others, i dont think he’s signed many title winning players.

As yourself and bryan pointed out, the premiership is a measure of where a club is truly at; 38 games over an entire season. His first season in charge was always going to be a write-off in my mind, especially with the poor squad we had at the time. We finished 1 point off 2nd place the year after, and even though chelsea ran away with it, I still feel we adequately challenged. Last year we finished 3rd without challenging, I accept that wasn’t good enough. We still don’t know where we’ll finish yet this season, but we already have 8 points more at this stage of the season than we did last year.

I just feel you watch the other sides and while we can turn it on, like today, we just lack…something. Especially going forward. He’s had the money and he’s had the time, and yet four years later United are still in another league to us. And he compounds that with his continual unflinching rotation policy which has proven not to work, and is upsetting a large portion of the faithful. Again I agree, going forward with real menace is something we rarely do. The addition of torres has helped, but we’re still a quality winger and striker away from where we need to be.

I don’t agree that he’s had the money, and I think it’s a season early to say he’s had the time. We never compete financially with united and chelsea, simply because we can’t. Only this past summer have we actually attempted to do so, and the change in our attacking play is already very noticable compared to last season, while still not where it should be. The money he has spent has been minimal compared to the other two, and generally on low profile players to fill gaps, generally because he wasn’t given to funds to go after his first choices. Granted, some of them didn’t work out, but he shipped them on straight away, generally for more or less what we paid, give or take a million. Since he came to liverpool he’s spent ???127.44m. and sold ???51.2m. So overall he’s actually only been given a total of ???76.24m to spend over 3 summer transfer periods, that’s it.

As for rotation, it’s a tricky subject. I’m personally of the opinion it can work well, but only if the squad is really strong, and ours isn’t quite there yet. Paul Thompkins wrote a good article on the official site a while back about rotation. He compared the number of rafa’s team changes per season to that of fergie, mourinho and wenger, and the results were pretty conclusive. He accounted for things like injuries and suspensions, so the results were only based on players that were actually rotated. I think last year in particular stood out; rafa made 1 more change to his team than fergie did over the course of a season. The difference was that united’s squad was stronger than ours.

And I don’t think all the Spaniards will up and off if he goes. Particularly if they bring in someone like Lippi, who might add some much needed Italian steel and discipline in wide areas and some clinical finishing up front. I really think even Lippi would struggle to talk some players from jumping ship. Torres would probably stay, if i’m being honest, but we’d certainly lose the likes of masch, alonso and quite possibly reina. And yes, Lippi could just go out and buy some players of his own. He could probably even attract a range of world class lads given his worldwide respect as a coach, but it would be pretty pointless unless he was given the proper cash to go out and get them, and certainly so if rick parry was in charge of getting them in the first place.

I think Houllier ran his course. And Benitez is in danger of going the same way. It’s a question of whether we swap now to get the world class managers left on offer or wait until 2008/09 and have another clearout. It is a tough one.It’s tricky alright. If we really want to go forward though, I think we need only to give max one more season. Give him ???40m cash to spend in the summer, and allow him to keep whatever he raises himself from sales. That should put us comfortably over the 50 mill mark. He can go for his first choice targets, not having to settle for what’s left. If he brought in Anelka, Silva, a good centre-half and possibly a left full, I think he’d have a complete squad. If he still can’t do it, fair enough.

plus, apart from Torres, Babel and one or two others, i dont think he’s signed many title winning players.Mascherano is fast becoming one of the best young holding midfielders in the world, he’s 23. Lucas Leiva has bags and bags of potential. He even managed to win the Bola de Ouro in the Brazilian league, something previously given to the likes of Zico, Kaka, Romaria and Tevez. He’s in his first season in england and he’s already showing signs of his quality. He’s 20 years old. Throw in the likes of: Daniel Agger (23 – one of the best young centre-halfs in the premiership), Pepe reina (25 – winner of the golden glove for the past 2 seasons, as well as breaking any number of liverpool goalkeeping records for clean sheets), Xabi Alonso (Internationally appreciated as a top class deep-lying playmaker) and I think it’s fair to say rafa’s brought in some very good players, especially if you consider value for money.

He is? Since when? Anderson, Fabregas, Mikel, hell even Flamini are far better players then him. He’s simply a workhorse.

Also, Garcia,Sissoko, Zenden, Bellamy, Nunez, Josemi, Morientes, Pellegrino, Gonzalez, Voronin and Benyaoun. None of which are the calbre of player Liverpool should be buying. Yeah, he’s done well in cup competitions, but he hasnt seriously challenged for the league. And thats the real acid taste of a good side.

Also, that fat mackem cunt needs to sort things out or gtfo. Sharpish.

You of all people should know that Bryan, given how your team’s form took a spectacular nosedive when he got injured and subsequently left Newcastle.

Mascherano is better than Flamini, too. And Anderson is unproven, seems to be hitting some sort of form, but he was poor for the first few months.

Just to clarify though, I don’t think Liverpool will challenge for the league for a good few seasons yet. They rely too much on Gerrard, don’t have a really good creative attacking midfielder and don’t have a 20 goals a season striker. Whether Torres becomes that striker , only time will tell but I think it will be three or four years and some good signings in the right positions before Liverpool will challenge seriously.

Also, Garcia,Sissoko, Zenden, Bellamy, Nunez, Josemi, Morientes, Pellegrino, Gonzalez, Voronin and Benyaoun. None of which are the calbre of player Liverpool should be buying. Yeah, he’s done well in cup competitions, but he hasnt seriously challenged for the league. And thats the real acid taste of a good side.Garcia scored a rake of import goals while playing for liverpool, he was a perfectly good buy. Sissoko was bought because he had something our side lacked, a powerful young workhorse to hassle opposing players. He was fantastic in his first season in the premiership, nearly lost his eye in the champions league the season after, and hasn’t been the same since. He’ll be gone by next summer. Gonzalez was one of the most highly rated south american youngsters in quite a while. He simply couldn’t adjust to the premiership and life in england in general. Morientes was similar, he just couldn’t adapt to the english style of playing. He went to Valencia and is still a top player. Voronin was a free btw. As for the rest, they may not be / were not liverpool standard, but they were sold on / will be sold on for more or less what they cost. Plughole players, nothing more. When the financial backing matches rafa’s actual transfer desires, there’ll be no need to sign such players.

I actually remember debating about him over msn with you one time before. I’ve never seen anything in him to suggest he’s a world-class midfield player. You know as well as I do that a good world cup doesnt make a good player either. Case in point, Duff. Has he had a good run of form since 2002?

Garcia scored a rake of import goals while playing for liverpool, he was a perfectly good buy.

Not denying that, but he was a god awful player in general play though.

Sissoko was bought because he had something our side lacked, a powerful young workhorse to hassle opposing players. He was fantastic in his first season in the premiership, nearly lost his eye in the champions league the season after, and hasn’t been the same since.

Bit harsh here I admit, I rated him very highly and such an experience is definetly going to affect someone mentally.

Gonzalez was one of the most highly rated south american youngsters in quite a while. He simply couldn’t adjust to the premiership and life in england in general. Morientes was similar, he just couldn’t adapt to the english style of playing. He went to Valencia and is still a top player.

It’s Rafa’s job to judge if the player is suitable for the style of play in the league though.

When the financial backing matches rafa’s actual transfer desires, there’ll be no need to sign such players.

17m for Mascherano and breaking the bank for Torres(best buy Liverpool have made for a long, long time granted) ISNT financial backing?

Also, Barton;

Not denying that, but he was a god awful player in general play though. He was very frustrating in posession, I’ll admit, but his positives far outweighed his negatives in my mind.

Bit harsh here I admit, I rated him very highly and such an experience is definetly going to affect someone mentally.Agreed. To be honest, sissoko is a confidence player, and being left out of the squad enitrely every 3 or 4 out of 5 games has not benefited him in the slightest. If he had a regular starting place every week, I have a feeling he’d be back to his best. That’s why I think it best for both parties he be moved on, because he’s not going to displace gerrard, alonso, mascherano, or even the young lad lucas.

It’s Rafa’s job to judge if the player is suitable for the style of play in the league though. True, but even so it’s always going to be a hit and miss situation. Torres was a hit, morientes a miss. Hell, even fergie dropped 28 million on veron, and look how that turned out.

17m for Mascherano and breaking the bank for Torres(best buy Liverpool have made for a long, long time granted) ISNT financial backing?To be honest, we haven’t even paid for him yet, he’s still on loan. We do have an option to buy, but the transfer fee isn’t 17m, it’s considerably less. The newspapers just jumped on that figure, as they did with torres’ supposed 26m deal. That 17m for masch includes wages for 4 years, iirc. So we’re actually buying him for closer 12mm, if we’re given the money for him at all. The yanks refusal to dip the hand for masch was part of the reason behind rafa’s bust up with them. This past summer is the only transfer period where rafa has actually been backed somewhat, and even that wasn’t anything substantial compared to united. Rafa raised half the funds for all his transfers through sales.

If Barton isn’t sent down for some sort of meaningful period of time, I will lose any faith I had in the British judicial system. He’s fucking scum.

I wouldnt judge a player based on seeing highlights, ever. He’s just never impressed me as a world-class player. World-class is a hugely over-used phrase too, in my book.

To be honest, we haven’t even paid for him yet, he’s still on loan. We do have an option to buy, but the transfer fee isn’t 17m, it’s considerably less. The newspapers just jumped on that figure, as they did with torres’ supposed 26m deal. That 17m for masch includes wages for 4 years, iirc. So we’re actually buying him for closer 12mm, if we’re given the money for him at all. The yanks refusal to dip the hand for masch was part of the reason behind rafa’s bust up with them. This past summer is the only transfer period where rafa has actually been backed somewhat, and even that wasn’t anything substantial compared to united. Rafa raised half the funds for all his transfers through sales.

Wasn’t really aware of the full details of the deal tbh. Saying that, the press like to exagerate the fees. We only paid 7m for Woodgate when they said it was 9.5m, similar with Milner, Duff, Owen etc etc.

If Barton isn’t sent down for some sort of meaningful period of time, I will lose any faith I had in the British judicial system. He’s fucking scum.

Here’s hoping. Yet another fuck up by the fat mackem to go anywhere near him, when everyone else had the sense not to.

bollocks

Now if only the Man U players were to receive something as melodramatic as this for that stupid party of theirs, these players need to be taught that they can’t keep behaving like this whether or not they’re footballers. Public Assault and ‘Rape’ or whatever they called the incident aren’t something anyone would do anyway, celebrities are still people, except they’re bloody rich…

haha, wiki edits ftw:

Internet sex scandal

In August 2007, Banega and his Boca teammate Jonathan Maidana were caught on webcam masturbating in a chatroom by somebody calling himself [email protected]. Both players have become gay icons as a result, and the clip has appeared on numerous websites and in the Spanish press following his move to Valencia CF

The daily mail runs a new "BENITEZ ON THE VERGE OF BEING SACKED" story every day. It’s entertaining stuff, if nothing else.

edit: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2008/01/08/rafa-benitez-why-the-hell-would-i-ever-want-to-quit-this-fantastic-club-100252-20323782/

That sums it up nicely.

Shoddy. Absolutely shoddy shite. What was Hughes doing playing folk out of position!? And the team selection? Jesus. Coventry deserved it.

Also, Savage gone. Good riddance you stupid long haired cunt.

They want trophies and pretty football and they want it with a set of players that have finished mid-table the last two years? Heck, if they’d stuck with Roeder they might actually be making something of themselves, but noooooooooooooo, they had to sack him, and bring in someone like Sam who obviously was going to make some big changes in terms of tactics and the style of play. Fine. But that takes time, a concept it seems that is totally alien to supporters of that club, and alas, another manager goes without even lasting a season. It wasn’t like Allardyce was unproven, though, in which case this knee-jerk move might be justified; he had done the exact same thing at Bolton, from an even shittier starting position, but that took 5 years, not 5 months.

Go to hell, you cunts.

As for Harry Redknapp, he’s too good for Newcastle. If he has any sense he’ll stay at Portsmouth, where he is practically a deity to the fans.

One of the few things we’ve had going for us, and now he’s gone.

AWESOME.

They want trophies and pretty football and they want it with a set of players that have finished mid-table the last two years? Heck, if they’d stuck with Roeder they might actually be making something of themselves, but noooooooooooooo, they had to sack him, and bring in someone like Sam who obviously was going to make some big changes in terms of tactics and the style of play. Fine. But that takes time, a concept it seems that is totally alien to supporters of that club, and alas, another manager goes without even lasting a season. It wasn’t like Allardyce was unproven, though, in which case this knee-jerk move might be justified; he had done the exact same thing at Bolton, from an even shittier starting position, but that took 5 years, not 5 months.

Go to hell, you cunts.

As for Harry Redknapp, he’s too good for Newcastle. If he has any sense he’ll stay at Portsmouth, where he is practically a deity to the fans.

this is complete crap. i dont know a single newcastle fan like that, apart from the SSN muppets that appear on the tv dragging their knucklers along the ground. media fuelled myth and complete bullshit.

also, Martin Jol please.

you mean there’s more than one of you that follows newcastle over there? fantastic!

i just find the idea of paddy and murphy dressed in black and white, shouting toon whilst trying to mimic the geordie accent in a kind of broken gaelic twang absolutely precious.

in all seriousness, yeah, there’s a supporters club of about 100 here, and i know plenty of people in newcastle also.

also, Martin Jol please.

The facts suggest otherwise. The fans hounded Allardyce out because he wasn’t playing pretty football. They hounded Bobby Robson out in spite of a tremendous overall league record, because he was in the relegation zone after a handful of games. They got rid of Roeder and Souness who also did not have more than a season to build anything.

I’m aware that the media exaggerates the extent of the expectation, and obviously there are some level-headed fans at Newcastle, but you can’t deny the pressure to achieve is ridiculous. The next manager who comes in will face exactly the same pressures too, and God help them if they aren’t either producing performances or results by the end of the season, lest they go the same way as Sam.

Spurs are the same too, Chelsea are even worse. The fact is that even the best managers go through bad spells at times. Does that mean you boot them out as soon as they do? No, but that seems to be the policy in the Premiership these days.

Exactly. As many pundits have commented, they won’t be happy until Shearer’s had his go and failed miserably.

Myth. He was sacked because the team was playing even worse then it did under Souness or Roeder, and he had shown nothing that he was going to improve things. Not beating Derby(TWICE!) and losing to crap like Wigan and numerous awful, clueless, tacitcally inept performances got him the bullet. I didnt want him sacked as he needed til the end of the season, but I can understand why he was sacked. He played players out of position(Martins on the wing, Milner on the left, N’Zogbia at LB, Smith in DM despite a MOTM performance against Arsenal when he played up front).

They hounded Bobby Robson out in spite of a tremendous overall league record, because he was in the relegation zone after a handful of games.

We were long in decline before Bobby left, the season before the team went way backwards. Although, the way he was underminded and then sacked was a disgrace.

They got rid of Roeder and Souness who also did not have more than a season to build anything.

Souness was there for 20 months, plus he’s Souness.

Roeder was never good enough to manage a premiership club, and he’d lost the dressing room.

I’m aware that the media exaggerates the extent of the expectation, and obviously there are some level-headed fans at Newcastle, but you can’t deny the pressure to achieve is ridiculous. The next manager who comes in will face exactly the same pressures too, and God help them if they aren’t either producing performances or results by the end of the season, lest they go the same way as Sam.

Yes, like every other club in the world. :rolleyes:

Not really?

I could give you examples of other clubs that stick by their managers even when things aren’t going exactly as they’d hoped, and in all those cases they turned things around.

For example: Wigan last year-could have sacked Paul Jewell while they were in the relegation zone for a lot of the year, didn’t, and he kept them up.

Birmingham, the year before last got relegated, could have sacked Steve Bruce but didn’t, he got them back up.

Arsenal, finished 4th last year, falling well behind expectations with a proven manager, in much the same way Newcastle were with Allardyce. Did they sack Wenger? No, and now look where they are-top of the Premiership.

West Ham-took Curbishley a good while to get things moving, even lost 5-0 to Reading, but are now 10th in the table and could qualify for Europe this year.

Allardyce had shown prior to joining Newcastle that he could achieve great things with a very limited group of players, but even at Bolton it took time. For three to four years, they were scrapping around trying to stay up. But he gradually improved them, and got them to Europe, a huge achievement. You would think that with that sort of record he’d get more than eight months.

As for your other points, Roeder had a decent season at West Ham, and is doing well at Norwich now. Souness actually got to the semi finals of the UEFA Cup and the FA Cup, and had bad luck with injuries, though the decision to sack him was probably fair in the end. Neither were exactly terrible managers. If you look at what Souness has achieved over his managerial career you’ll see he’s had his fair share of success as well as failure.

Also, poor performances notwithstanding Newcastle are still only 11th in the table and there have clearly been some good performances mixed in with the bad ones. Of the 10 teams ahead of Newcastle, you have the ‘big’ 4, Man City, West Ham and Aston Villa who have rich owners and can afford high wages (even though Villa haven’t actually spent that much), Everton, who are established as a top 6 side anyway, plus Portsmouth and Blackburn who are going through particularly good spells in their history at the moment.

They shouldnt have gone down in the first place.

Arsenal, finished 4th last year, falling well behind expectations with a proven manager, in much the same way Newcastle were with Allardyce. Did they sack Wenger? No, and now look where they are-top of the Premiership.

I’m not even going to dignify this with a response.

Allardyce had shown prior to joining Newcastle that he could achieve great things with a very limited group of players, but even at Bolton it took time. For three to four years, they were scrapping around trying to stay up. But he gradually improved them, and got them to Europe, a huge achievement.

They over-acheived. Any Bolton fan will tell you the seeds of their decline this season were sowed towards the end of the Allardyce era. Also, how many trophies has he won in his career?

As for your other points, Roeder had a decent season at West Ham

Yes, he got a side with Cole, Carrick, Defoe, Di Canio and Kanoute relegated!

and is doing well at Norwich now.

20th in the championship.

Souness actually got to the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup and the semi-finals of the FA Cup and promptly got trashed against the first decent side they met and had bad luck with injuries, because Souness brought his players back too quickly and took needless gambles though the decision to sack him was long overdue.

Fix’d

Neither were exactly terrible managers.

Yes, they were.

If you look at what Souness has achieved over his managerial career you’ll see he’s had his fair share of success as well as failure.

Being a major factor in the decline of the greatest club in Europe, being sacked from numerous clubs, and generally being a joke figure on football. Sucessful manegerial career indeed……

Also, Ali Dia.